Non-Intervention By now indeed the fate of Spain does not
depend on the progress of the war. The civil war has developed into an international conflict the issue of which is decided in Berlin, Rome, Paris and London rather than on the battle front. The plan for the evacuation of volunteers which has finally emerged from the long struggles in the Non-Intervention Committee may seem a somewhat disappointing result after so much labour, even though it is to cost some L ,5oo,000. Its direct effects on the war are likely to be small ; for by now intervention in Spain works less by sending " volunteers " than by sending material. The significance of the plan, how- ever, consists, not in its direct effects, but in the expression it gives to a common anxiety, which by now extends even to Italy, to limit the conflicts arising out of the war, and it is the recent change in Italy's attitude to the Spanish conflict which has made possible even so small a contribution to finding a solution of the problem. If, as appears to be the case, Italy has gone so far as to appeal to General Franco to appeal to Italian airmen to try to avoid bombing British ships, something may be said to have been achieved.
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