THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, February 18, 1937. NON-INTERVENTION IN SPAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23118, 18 February 1937, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, February 18, 1937. NON-INTERVENTION IN SPAIN

The conflict in Spain has been dragging on since July last. The Non-intervention Committee came into being about a month later and held its first meeting in London on September 9. For nearly six months the Committee has been functioning, and, according to this week’s cable messages, it has now reached an agreement to ban volunteers to Spain as from midnight on Saturday next, and to put in operation a fortnight later a scheme of control under which a naval cordon will be placed round Spain to prevent the entry of arms and volunteers. This would seem to suggest that after months of ineffectuality the Non-intervention Committee is about to justify itself by action such as may be expected to give immediate effect to its purpose of localising the struggle in Spain and minimising the danger of its protraction and extension. Yet it is difficult to judge of the value that is to be attached to these latest decisions, even if it be assumed that they have the endorsement of all the European Governments concerned. The reverse of the picture is the situation that exists in Spain to-day after eight months of civil war. Affirmation of the principle of non-intervention seems to have done little beyond providing a cloak of official neutrality for Governments the sympathy of which with one or other of the contestants is apparent. Moreover, suppose the ban upon volunteers entering Spain were as thoroughly effective as the combined efforts of every Power represented on the Non-intervention Committee could make it, that would not withdraw a single soldier from the hordes of foreigners who have already enlisted in the war. The door has been left open so long that even if an effective cordon can now be instituted there can be no undoing the damage already done. The capture of Malaga by the insurgents was accompanied by a sheaf of reports from different sources ascribing that result to the support lent by Italian and German forces. The diplomatic correspondent of the Manchester Guardian states that, as a consequence of Italian and German aid, the rebels in Spain are now superior in numbers and -much superior in discipline and equipment. The old story which has been heard from month to month has been accentuated.

The recent accounts of the attempts of the insurgents to encircle Madrid leave no room for doubt that extensive bodies of foreign combatants are engaged on both sides in Spain, and to that extent the endeavours of the Non-intervention Committee have borne the stamp of futility. The question of the degree of duplicity shown by certain Governments in professing to favour non-interven-tion while contributing to the measure of intervention that has actually been practised is one respecting which the evidence will no doubt continue to be highly conflicting. Speaking in the House of Commons last week. Lord Cranborne stated that, according to his information, there were large numbers of Italians in Spain, but he could not give any accurate estimate of ,the number involved in the present struggle. Italy, he said, had agreed to impose a prohibition on these movements of volunteers as soon as other Powers did so. The Italian agreement to prohibitive action from the date decided upon is reported to be “ contingent on other Powers doing likewise.” There is no guarantee, unfortunately, that this reservation may not yet furnish an excuse for non-observance of the agreement. It is quite probable that there may be allegations all round that the ban is being evaded and

that the cordon is not effective, and that this Government or that cannot be expected to stand by and, without retaliation, permit another to ignore its pledges. Behind the official mask there has been all along so much suggestion of governmental insincerity in certain cases in relation to the efforts of the Non-interven-tion Committee that it is difficult to avoid being somewhat sceptical respecting the ability of British and French diplomacy to achieve at this stage any real clearance of the atmosphere with introduction of the genuine substance of co-operation. It is nearly two months since the British and French Governments appealed directly to the Governments in Berlin, Rome, Moscow and Lisbon to join in the institution, as a matter of urgency, of measures permitting of effective simultaneous action for the prevention of the flow of volunteers into Spain. At least, now that agreement on this matter is reported to have been reached, the question of its value should soon be put to the test.