BRITISH ATTITUDE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 19 December 1936, Page 15

BRITISH ATTITUDE

NON-INTERVENTION IN SPAIN

NOT DUE TO SYMPATHY FOR ANY SIDE STATEMENT BY MR EDEN (British Official Wirelesß) (Received 19th December, 2 p.m.) RUGBY, 18th December. In the House of Commons the Foreign Secretary, Mr Anthony Eden spoke on the Spanish situation. He said the Government would like to see the Government in Spain that Spain wanted. “We think it is the duty of all nations to keep out of the Spanish quarrel and allow the Spanish people to settle their sufficiently tragic difficulties themselves. If anyone thinks that the support of nonintervention is due to sympathy for this or that side, they are mistaken. We support the policy which we believe ,to be best for Europe at this time.” They were searching to improve the non-intervention. Obviously the best method would be to institute effective control.

If the principal nations of Europe really wishes to make a non-interven-tion agreement effective, control would be quite simple, but if they did not wish to make non-interven-tion effective, then it was beyond the wit of man to devise any system of control which would operate successfully. Referring to recent AngloFrench initiative Mr Eden said it had a dual objective: Firstly, to reinforce the efficacy of the non-intervention agreemnt, and secondly, to make an effort towards mediation. “Neither we nor the French Government have any intention of desisting in our attempts to secure mediation in this conflict. We intend to persist, perhaps using slightly different methods of approach because we believe the time will come when those efforts will ultimately be rewarded.”

The Foreign Secretary spoke of the importance of the humanitarian work in which His Majesty’s diplomatic and consular officers had taken an active part and to which the Navyhad rendered great assistance. This work, besides saving life, served to reduce bitterness between the contending forces. He also commended the work of the Scottish Ambulance, He said as a result of their activities, as many as 200 persons had been evacuated weekly from one port alone. He could not give the total figures, but it would not surprise him; if in the final reckoning it were found that the total of prisoners exchanged reached five figures. They hoped an exchange of a further 4000 prison? ers between the Basque and Burgos authorities would be effected in the near future.

Mr Eden favoured the League’s giving technical assistance to the Spanish Government in the co-ordi-nation of transport to ensure food supplies to Madrid. The Government would be willing to do anything to facilitate the efforts of private organisations to make good the deficiencies of medical supplies. Moreover, though he believed fortunately that there had been no use of gas, there was nothing to prevent the dispatch of gas masks to Madrid. In this matter the Government had been approached by the Madrid Government and had ifself sold a small consignment to them.