THE SPANISH TANGLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23204, 31 May 1937, Page 2

THE SPANISH TANGLE

ATTITUDE OF BRITISH PEOPLE POLICY OF THE NAVY Events in Spain have taken a turn which may possibly involve English public opinion more intimately than the struggle between "Reds" and "Rebels"—call them what you will—has yet done during its fluctuating and deplorable progress. This possibility (says a London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald) had its root in politics, as waves of the public mind so often have. It is mistaken to suppose that politicians always lead public opinion—more frequently they merely arouse it. The Opposition in the British Parliament felt itself free to take sides in a foreign struggle, towards which this country officially was so neutral that it did not know the belligerents. Consequently, the " Left" ardently espoused the cause of the Spanish Government, and hammered away at the Treasury benches in an effort to swing England definitely on that side. This went on for a long time with little result, until the chance came for the extreme wing of I Labour to wave the Union Jack. Without challenging the theory that they sincerely love their country in their own way, it may be conceded that their tastes do not generally run to flag-wagging. Art unaccustomed exercise is nearly always followed with zest. So in this instance. The forces of tyranny and atrocity i (though impartial observers do not give either side in Spain the palm I on these counts) were threatening to assail British ships on the high seas. | The Flag of England .. . and no Tory squire could have choked over it more dramatically. Then the Hood spoke, and that was that. Mr Lloyd George might claim on the hustings that Opposition clamour had spurred or scared the Admiralty into action. The popular idea was that the Government was looking after the British Flag, and there was nothing to worry about on that score. But the thought went a little bit further. It was felt that H.M.S Hood, if she had not escorted food-ships into Bilbao with relief for the Basques, had gone very close to it. The Radical papers here played up the incident for political reasons, and the sheer news-sheets displayed it as a human story. The evening papers " starred " the sinking by a Spanish Government plane of one of Franco's warships,

which was "attacking a British ship." All this has tended to evoke a British sympathy for the Basques, about whom fiction has long cast a glamour, and even a feeling that "we are on their side." Add the near prospect of; the British Navy rescuing women and children from beleaguered Bilbao, and the possible popular effect is heightened. It is a fact, however, that during the Spanish conflict the British Navy has "aided" both sides in a humanitarian way, and it is the clean-cut policy to continue. It is stated explicitly that, if British merchantmen sought to take .proper cargoes into Franco's ports, a similar protection to the edge of the threemile limit would assuredly be given. Still, one cannot help recalling the wave of feeling in Britain against the Hoare-Laval plan for Abyssinia—something far better than Abyssinia got in the end—and wondering whether the Government, running a straight and even a wise course, may not be embarrassed again by a popular tide. No doubt the reduced Conservative majorities (and one bare reversal) in recent byelections will be exploited in connection with the Spanish situation, but, as a matter of hard politics, too much importance need not be attached to the figures.