NEWS OF THE WEEK
WHILE the fighting in Spain sways this way and that, the most recent operations being to the temporary advantage of General Franco, the fate of the British plan for securing the withdrawal of volunteers in Spain has still to be finally decided. The plan is just not dead. But it unquestionably will be if the Soviet Government persists in its uncompromising opposition to the recognition of belligerency of both parties till the repatriation of volunteers has been completed. It would not practically be a serious matter for Russia to withhold recognition when the rest of the States on the Non-Intervention Committee accorded it, but the attitude of the Soviet delegate makes it impossible to bring any pressure to bear on Herr von Ribbcntrop and Count Grandi, who insist on varying the British proposals in the other direction by according belligerent rights as soon as the withdrawal of volunteers has been agreed on instead of when the operation is well under way. Both Britain and France are pressing Russia to modify an attitude which if persisted in will not only wreck the present British plan but make it futile for any other to be drafted, and they may (as a rumour, since denied, suggested) be successful. The breakdown ofthe plan might, in view of the improvement in the relationi between this country and Italy, have less serious consequences than might_ be feared, but it would sensibly accentuate the dangers of the situation none the less.
