GERMAN TROOPS LAND IN SPAIN TO AID REBELS

Northern Advocate, 2 December 1936, Page 7

GERMAN TROOPS LAND IN SPAIN TO AID REBELS

5000 MEN PASS THROUGH SEVILLE EN ROUTE TO FRONT

FOREIGN REINFORCEMENTS FOR LOYALISTS TOTAL 15,000

lUnited Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyrights

(Received 2.30 p.m.)

' LONDON, December 1. “rpHE Times” diplomatic correspondent says that the British Government has been, informed that 5000 Germans landed at Cadiz and passed through Seville, en route to the rebel front. It is reported that they were not wearing uniforms, but were bearing arms and equipment. Four thousand men are also reported to have arrived at Barcelona from France for disposal by the Valencia Government.

News of the German contingent's arrival created deep concern in Germany, and can only be deplored as an aggravating factor, which has* heavily charged the situation.

It is presumed that large volunteer

The “Daily Mail’s” Madrid correspondent estimates the number of recent foreign reinforcements to the loyalist front in Madrid at 15,000, including a Siberian regiment c-f 3000.

contingents cannot go to Spain from any dictator-governed State without the knowledge and consent of high political authorities. Such contingents must be distinguished from groups leaving free countries to fight for either side. “Flying in Face of Law.” As the Non-Intervention Agreement does not prohibit importation of volunteer man power, although it certainly forbids their bearing arms, abstention could at present only be on a voluntary basis. The French plan for making non-intervention effective would apparently remedy this omission by extending agreed prohibitions to cover voluntary fighters. The “News Chronicle” says latest reports show that 5000, not 2000, Germans landed, arid adds: “This flies directly iri : the face of international law.”

German reinforcements for the rebels are reported to have landed from a. German transport, escorted by two destroyers, says this correspondent. Not Described as Troops. The story was originally released by the “News Chronicle,” which featured a story that the British Government is aware that German troops landed at Cadiz, and that more than 2000 are on the way to Madrid to help General Franco to batter down the capital. In view of the seriousness of the statement, the Australian Associated Press sought verification of it in official quarters, to which it has been reported tjiat numbers of Germans had reached Spain, but they would not go so far as to describe them as troops. The Australian Associated Press gathers that if the investigations reveal that they are troops, Britain must seriously deplore it. It is pointed out that the question of personnel is outside the scope of the non-intervention Committee, which is concerned only with materials, hut the matter of troops is likely to be raised at' the special meeting of the League Council on Tuesday next.

The “Times’ ” Barcelona correspondent records the arrival there of hundreds of Frenchmen, Germans, Italians, Hungarians, Austrians, Belgians and Poles to help the Government on the Madrid front.

The British United Press correspondent at Gibraltar says there are persistent rumours that 6000 Germans, mostly engineers and trench specialists, landed at Cadiz from a German transport, escorted by two destroyers.

The Foreign Office at Berlin says it is hardly worth denying the stories. Nothing is known of such troops.