ATTACKS ON BRITISH SHIPPING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23527, 16 June 1938, Page 10

ATTACKS ON BRITISH SHIPPING

The statement by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on the subject of the attacks on British shipping in Spanish territorial waters and Spanish ports contained no surprises. The British Government holds the Government of General Franco responsible for the attacks, and has protested against them in strong terms. But it is not the desire of the Government of Great Britain, nor can it be the wish of the British people, that retaliatory measures should be adopted that would expose the nation to the charge that it had intervened in the civil war. British ships calling at ports in Spain do so in the full knowledge that the Government will not be responsible for their safety while they are there. On the high seas, Great Britain is prepared to defend the right of British shipping to freedom from molestation, and is able to do so effectively, as has been shown in the success of the measures to combat attacks by “ pirate ” submarines. The visits of British shipping to places within the war area, however, are made for profit, and in full understanding of the dangers that are involved. Whether war materials for the Spanish National Government were included in the cargoes carried, as has been stated by the Franco Government in justification of the attacks through which eleven ships have been sunk or seriously damaged within two months, has not been established. Apparently proof has requested by the British Government, and though it should have been easy to obtain if 9 the allegations are true, it has not so far been provided. The good faith of the British Government, in its intention of abiding by the non-inter-vention agreement, is proved in the prosecution at Gibraltar, of the captain of a British vessel who is charged with carrying war material to Spain. That the Government is not prepared to guarantee the safety of British shipping which ventures into territorial waters is a rational outcome of its determination to observe the terms of the non-inter-vention agreement. But it is to be hoped, for many reasons, that the Franco Government will not strain relations too far with apparently unprovoked attacks upon merchant craft flying the British flag. Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for Coordination of Defence, has this week publicly warned other nations of the inadvisability in their own interests of undue provocation of Great Britain. Two-proposals, the Prime Minister indicated, are being investigated at present with a view to a solution of the present difficulty, the principle of them being the establishment of safety zones for neutral shipping. If a practicable scheme of this nature should be devised, it would have the desired effect of protecting shipping without involving British force in the Spanish struggle, that being a possibility that would be no more attractive to the Franco Government than to the British,