THE SPANISH MENACE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22616, 2 January 1937, Page 8

THE SPANISH MENACE

A number of items of news published to-dav emphasise the fact that from the point; of view of Britain and France their proposal that all countries should prohibit their nationals engaging in the conflict in Spain is a matter of urgency. A group of Scotsmen has left to join the Spanish Government forces ; there is evidence of recruiting in the United States on behalf of the same cause; a German warship is standing by a Basque port to strengthen a German demand for the surrender of what is termed industrial technical equipment discharged from a vessel captured by a Spanish Government ship on the ground that it was conveying materials of war to the rebels; and Germans fighting in battalions are reported to have been in action on the side of the rebels. In regard to foreign recruitment of soldiers for one side or the other it is impossible in the circumstances to class such volunteers as soldiers of fortune, for the two dictatorship theories of government, of which Spain is becoming the battleground, are upheld in all the countries of Europe by organisations which are almost fanatically active. It is a matter for remark that Communist groups of volunteers are leaving Britain for Spain almost at the same moment that the Public-Order Act, forbidding the wearing of political uniforms, comes into operation. It is impossible to dissociate recruiting for Spain with militantly-minded propagandist organisations in the home of democracy—Britain—or from dictatorship rule where it exists. Thus participation in the war by foreign nationals, whether in complete units or otherwise, involves their countries in a way that was impossible through the activities of their soldiers of fortune in previous wars.