CONDITIONS IN SPAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26232, 16 August 1946, Page 7

CONDITIONS IN SPAIN

SECRET INVESTIGATION MADE BRITISH PARLIAMENTARIAN LONDON, Aug. 14. Britain's youngest member of Parliament. Captain Francis Noel-Baker, crossed the Pyrenees into France after a 10-days’ secret visit to the underground leaders of Spain’s Republican resistance movement, says Reuter’s Paris correspondent. He travelled with false papers, and was the guest of various democratic Republican groups, who arranged an extensive tour to give him first-hand contact with the Opposition leaders. Captain Noel-Baker said the object of his visit was to assess the real strength of the Spanish Republican bodies, and he intends to prepare a report for the information of his fellow-members of the House of Commons. His general impressions are:— 1. A competently-led Republican movement existed.

2. There is active political repression of the opponents of Franco’s regime. 3. Despite the record Spanish harvest. the black market still controlled food prices. Captain Noel-Baker, who was a British intelligence officer during the war, added that he proposed sending a letter to the Spanish Ambassador in London, explaining the' reasons for the unorthodox methods which he felt impelled to adopt to get a true picture of inside Spain, and offering to undertake a second, officially-sponsored journey if given freedom of movement.