Non -Intervention If the British Government was right, as it
is our firm conviction that it was, in doing its utmost from the outset to localise the Spanish conflict, then the Bill to prohibit the carrying of arms to Spain is no more than a natural and logical sequel, and the action of the Opposi- tion in dividing against it is hard to comprehend and harder to justify. It is easy to say that non-inter- vention has broken down and that the insurgents have benefited more than the Government by violations of it. The truth of that proposition is very doubtful, and in any case it is still true that the agreement has been observed far more than it has been violated. It has eased international tension at the moment of the greatest peril and it has undoubtedly stemmed what would otherwise have been an immense and increasing flow of arms and men to Spain. It has many defects : one of them, the fact that there is no agreement to ban volun- teers, but only the arms they carry, is to be brought under consideration at once. The committee has, moreover, reached agreement, apart from abstention by Portugal, on an elaborate plan of supervision at all essential points of entry on Spain's land and sea frontiers. But neither of that nor of the Spanish appeal to the League of Nations is much alleviation of the situation to be expected.
