NEWS OF THE WEEK
MR. EDEN'S proposals, published on Thursday, for solving the deadlock in the Non-intervention Com- mittee have at least the merit of offering an opportunity for compromise. This is the more important because, in certain circumstances, it is conceivable that Italy and Germany would be thankful of an opportunity to withdraw from their present position with as little loss of prestige as possible. The naval patrol system is to be abolished, and a system of control by official observers at the Spanish ports is to be substituted ; supervision of land frontiers is to be restored at once. Belligerent rights at sea are to be granted to both parties, on condition that satisfactory arrangements have been made, and are in course of being carried out, for the with- drawal of foreign nationals from Spain. The weakest part of the plan is clearly that it immediately abolishes naval control, while the obstacle to the import of arms which will be set up by the exercise of belligerent rights is conditional on arrangements which will take some time to carry out. It is a serious failing also that the granting of belligerent rights will act very much in favour of General Franco ; for it is difficult to see how the French Government can consent to the restoration of control on her land frontier on these terms. Only the urgent necessity of arriving at a compromise could justify these proposals ; certainly they make as many concessions to the halo-German point of view as its repre- sentatives can reasonably expect.
