Stalemate in Spain In the past week the Spanish conflict
has resumed its now familiar aspect of stalemate. Bilbao remains the chief theatre of the war, but the rebel offensive appears to have degenerated into abortive attacks reminiscent of the cam- paign around Madrid. The Basques, at last equipped with aeroplanes, have counter-attacked sucessfully both on the extreme left of the insurgent line south of Bilbao, and in the centre, where an attack on Lemona failed but left them in possession of two spurs commanding the approaches to San Pedro. The Valencia Government is still incapable of any campaign which will divert the insurgents from Bilbao ; but at the beginning of this week the loyalist militia made a successful drive in the Guadarrama mountains which enabled them to take La Granja and advance to within seven miles of Segovia. But on neither side is there any sign of ability to push the war to a decisive issue, and the position is likely to remain static until the foreign " volunteers " are withdrawn. This was emphasised by the League Council's resolution at Geneva on Saturday, which, after urging other countries to respect the territorial integrity of Spain, appealed to them to use every effort to obtain the withdrawal of volunteers as the most effective means to securing an end to the conflict. * * *
