That supplies are reaching General Franco in any large quantity
from abroad there is no evidence, though reports from the Spanish Government show, if authenti- cated by investigation, that the non-intervention agree- ment is not being completely honoured. No one seriously expected complete success, but the Government's claim that the existeece of the committee has prevented any substantial flow of munitions into Spain seems, on all the information available, to be justified. At any rate no good case can be made for Mr. Attlee's appeal for an emergency convocation of Parliament. The House of Commons is meeting in any ease on Thursday, and it would hardly have been practicable to call it earlier than Monday in any case. It cannot be pretended that three days one way or the other would be of vital import- ance—even if there were the least prospect of the House failing to give the Government full support. It is bent on localising the Spanish War and it is right. To take any other course would be to create a situation charged with peril. There might have been no alternative if the non-intervention policy had patently failed. But it has not, in spite of the slowness of certain countries in coming into line and the difficulty of extracting the necessary information from them now. Russia may at any moment break away from the committee, but it is doubtful whether she will proceed to despatch arms to Spain. Even if she did, that step would be less dangerous than it would have been a month ago, when tempers were more inflamed than they are today. The Non-inter- vention Committee has at least cooled the atmosphere.
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