As for last Sunday's air-raids on Barcelona, they have shocked
and outraged public opinion in every country not immediately concerned in the Spanish struggle. Here, again, the main guilt, to all appearance, lies primarily on other than Spanish shoulders. It is not with his own aeroplanes that General Franco turns the streets of Spanish cities red, and the machines that killed hundreds and injured thousands at Barcelona on Sunday are reported to have come from the direction of Palma, in the Balearic Islands, where Italian air-squadrons aiding Franco have their headquarters. There will, of course, be reprisals—Senor Negrin has announced that as a loathsome but inevitable measure—unless the initiative taken by the French Prime Minister proves unexpectedly effective. M. Chautemps announced on Tuesday that he was approaching other Powers with a view to appealing to both sides in Spain to abandon the barbarous practice of the wanton bombardment of civil populations, and our own Government has at once responded. If Herr Hitler, who has never quite abandoned the idea of setting some limit to air warfare, would unite in the appeal something might be effected. Without that the prospect is sombre, though the Republicans have declared their readiness to refrain from such bombardments if the insurgents will do the same. But General Franco enjoys superiority in the air, and he would no doubt contend that Barcelona, as the seat of Republican administration, is a lawful target.
