NO INTERVENTION

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20463, 1 April 1938, Page 7

NO INTERVENTION

MEETING OF COMMITTEE DIFFICULTIES AND DELAYS SEEKING A WAY OUT (Official Wireless) (Received April 1, 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, March 31 Lord Plymouth presided at a meeting of the" sub-committee of the intervention Committee to-day. Since the last meeting all the great Powers have accepted in principle the British plan for granting limited belligerent rights to both sides in Spain when the process of withdrawing non-Spanish combatants has made satisfactory progress. Difficulties and delays have arisen in giving practical effect to this agreement. The conditions of acceptance by the German and Italian Governments, including insistence that the French

land frontier should 'be closed while the commission is engaged in estimating the number of non-Spanish combatants on each side, were opposed by the French and Russian Governments, and the matter has for some weeks been the subject of private discussion. As a result French agreement was secured to the proposal for temporarily closing the frontier, but in Rome and Berlin the period suggested during which the frontier would be closed was considered too short to enable the withdrawals to begin. It is at this point that the committee is addressing itself to a solution of the differences and the ending oI this deadlock. The Two Chief Difficulties Lord Plymouth, in outlining the position of the non-intervention scheme, referred to the two chief difficulties remaining after the acceptance in principle of the British formula. The first was the basic figure of the formula and the second was the date of the restoration of observation. Regarding the second, the British Government proposed that observation on the land frontiers should be restored on the earliest day on which both commissions reported that they would be ready to start counting, and that it should be automatically suspended if withdrawal had not actually begun on the fifty-sixth day after the final adoption by the full committee of the resolution, or, alternatively, if in the initial stage the withdrawal scheme were to fall more than 10 days behind the agreed time-table. The sub-committee will at once submit to the respective Governments Lord Plymouth's proposals, together with a report on the discussion, with a request for instruction at the earliest possible moment. v Classification of Volunteers Regarding the classification of volunteers the sub-committee agreed that the Governments should be consulted regarding the ppoposals made in the Secretariat's memorandum on the practicability of classifying foreign volunteers by categories for the purpose 'of withdrawal. The sub-committee further agreed, after the Secretary had called attention to the difficult financial position of the observation scheme, to submit the memorandum thereon to the Governments, with a request for early instructions. FUND BANKRUPT THE OBSERVATION BCHEME NO POWER TO ENFORCE CONTRIBUTIONS NOT PAID United Press Assn.—Elec. Tei. Copyright (Receive'd April 1, 1 p.m. LONDON, March 31 The Daily Telegraph says the Nonintervention Secretary has intimated that unless the Powers paid a substantial part of their arrears it would be ne'cessarv to close down the w’hole of the observation scheme from the beginning of May. It was previously stated that the cost of the withdrawal scheme was about £2,000,000 but no Government hod shown any willingness to pay their proportionate' contribution to the fund. It is now apparent that the committee is heavily in debt and subscriptions are heavily in arrears. The bills of shipping companies for carrying non-intervention observers and observers’ salaries must be paid by a bank account that Is approaching Insolvency, consequently the Committee broke up with a feeling that the prospects of practical International measures for enforcing non-inter-vention are negligible. MOROCCAN TROOPS THEIR ADVANCE CHECKED i TWO MILE? FROM LEIUDA i ■ iJn ted Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright LONDON. March 31 General Franco’s Moroccan troops > have fought their way to within two .(Continued in next column)

miles of Lerida, where heavy machinegun and rifle fire from the outskirts of the town have checked their advance, says the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph in a message from ’ Fraga. ADMIBBION BY GERMANB BRITISH STEAMERS BOMBED TERRIBLE PLIGHT OF REFUGEES United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright | (Received April 1, 11.30 a.m.) ] BARCELONA, March 31 A German, Lieutenant Rudolf Ruker, and three others of the crew of a German bomber told Defence Ministry officials, after being shot down and taken prisoner, that, the plane bombed the steamer Stanwell on March 15. They added that the bomber came from the German air base at Pollenza and bombed and attempted to bomb (Other British ships. PERPIGNAN, March 31 Thousands of republican soldiers 11 and civilians, who are fleeing from the war zone, arrived after terrible hardships in the Pyrenees. It is feared that many /succumbed in the snow-clad mountains.