Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1938. ATROCITIES AND PEACEMAKING.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 June 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1938. ATROCITIES AND PEACEMAKING.

yyiTH accounts of one of the most cold-bloodedly savage 2 atrocities known to history—the bombing from the air of the little Spanish town of Granollers —yesterday’s cable news included a report of a softly persuasive speech in which the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Simon, defended and extolled the foreign policy of the British Prime Minister (Mr Neville Chamberlain) and particularly praised the agreement with Italy as one that was recognised all over* the world to be a contribution to peace. This agreement, Sir John Simon said, did not involve any approval of Italy’s conquest of Abyssinia. It may be more to the point to ask at this time whether the agreement involves any approval of the bombing of Granollers—the barbarous slaughter of non-combatants, of whom a large proportion were women and children, in a peaceful market place. The planes that bombed Granollers presumably were Italian, since it is reported that, after bombing and machine-gunning the people of Granollers, they returned to Majorca. In any ease, this act of frightfulhess was undertaken by or in the name of the Spanish insurgents, whom Signor Mussolini is actively supporting and whose pretensions he has publicly and emphatically endorsed. With Italy at least lending her countenance and support to those who are committing infamies like the bombing of Granollers, not to speak of the sinking of British ships in Spanish ports, it is not as easy as it otherwise might be to accept and approve Sir John Smon’s declaration that: —• The way to peace was not to be found by ranging the nations of the world into opposing teams, determined to resist one another to the. death. It was to be found by seeking out the causes of quarrels and misunderstandings and trying to remove them. That was the course which Mr Chamberlain had been taking. If the world is again to be told, as it was on Monday last, that the British Government is still trying to overcome the “many technical and legal difficulties” involved in an effective protest against the bombing of civilian populations, a good many people may consider that Mr Chamberlain is not so much seeking out and trying to remove the causes of quarrels and misunderstandings as taking up an attitude of extraordinary toleration towards abominable international crimes. It does not improve the outlook to take account of the solemn continuing farce of non-intervention proceedings that rather obviously are destined to lead to nothing in particular. With the Spanish Avar nearly two years old, slow-moving discussion is still proceeding on proposals to send international commissions to Spain to ascertain just what foreign forces are fighting on either side. A great deal of information on this subject is already freely available, and it would be astonishing indeed if the most searching investigation produced any evidence that the Spanish Government is being assisted by foreign forces comparing even remotely in strength with the organised Italian and German units that are co-operating with General Franco. The British Government is to be commended unreservedly on doing what is possible to avoid becoming involved in the conflicts of a disordered world. In the extent, however, to which British policy looks to a friendly understanding with those who are engaging in crimes like the bombing of Granollers, it is poorly calculated either to invite admiration or to inspire confidence.