MIDNIGHT RAID

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23060, 10 June 1938, Page 11

MIDNIGHT RAID

BUITISH-OWNED POET DREDGER DISABLED WAREHOUSES DESTROYED £60,000 DAMAGE CAUSED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Roceived June 9, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON. June 0 The small port of Gandia, 40 miles south of Valencia, which is entirely British-owned, was bombed at midnight, says a message from Madrid. A British dredger was disabled and two warehouses were destroyed. The damage is estimated at £60,000, according to the port company's representative. The harbour is used chiefly for the exportation of fruit and vegetables. Owing to the repeated bombing of Valencia, British cruisers and destroyers have been using Gandia. British colours were painted on the roofs of the warehouses. ATTACKS ON SHIPS NAVAL INVESTIGATION BRITISH DESTROYER ARRIVES REBELS* JUSTIFICATION (Received June 9, 0.32 p.m.) LONDON, June 9 The British destroyer Vanoc has arrived at Alicante to investigate the raids on British shipping, says the Madrid correspondent of the Times. "The rules of warfare do not guarantee the safety of neutral vessels in ports of a warring country," says an announcement by the insurgents at Burgos, in justifying the bombing of foreign vessels in Republican ports. The statement adds that neutral ships trading with the Government are merely common contrabandists.

STERN ACTION POSSIBLE BRITAIN AND FRANCE COMPLICATING FACTORS PARIS, June 2 Well-informed quarters are speculating as to what "stern measures" Britain and France are likely to take against General Franco if he continues deliberately to bomb British shipping and endanger French lives. It has variously been suggested that these measures may take the form of either economic pressure or a naval demonstration against General Franco's ports. It is pointed out, however, that this would only be done under further extreme provocation, since Britain and France heartily wish that the war was ended.

While the Anglo-Italian agreement cannot become effective until the war Is over, the equally desired ItaloFrench agreement is not likely unless an armistice is signed between the Burgos and Madrid Governments. On the other hand, as long as the war continues, Germany's hold on Italy and Spain is not likely to diminish, thus making more difficult the virtual detachment of Italy from the RomeBerlin axis by neutralising agreements which aim to turn the Mediterranean into a non-war zone. It is now recognised by the most competent ohsefVers that the whole crux of Anglo-French concern in Europe is the fear of a shift of equilibrium against Britain and France, either in Spain or Czechoslovakia or both. The danger of the equilibrium to-day is that it is based on armed forces instead of justice. ' . _