A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
MR. ATTLEE'S visit to Republican Spain raises some nice questions. Mr. Eden stated last Monday that the Leader of the Opposition, before leaving for Spain, signed the usual undertaking not to take part in any activities liable to be interpreted as inconsistent with His Majesty's Government's policy of non-intervention. Wednesday's papers contained many interesting reports of Mr. Attlee's activities. According to The Times Madrid correspondent he declared himself impressed with the organisation and spirit of the Spanish people and sure of their victory, and promised to go home and bring pressure to bear on the Government so that British foreign policy should be changed in favour of loyalist Spain. According to the Daily Telegraph Madrid correspondent he declared that the non-intervention policy was "truly a farce. Everybody knows it is a farce." According to the Daily Herald's Barcelona correspondent he gave authorisation for a battalion of the International Brigade, fighting with the Republican army, to be named after him. Whether the denunciation of the non-intervention policy as a farce is an act (or activity) liable to be interpreted as inconsistent with the policy of non-intervention it is not for me to say ; I merely record the facts as reported, I assume accurately, by various correspondents in Spain.
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