Salamanca, July 17.
A declaration that aid to the loyalists by Soviet Russia and to a less extent by French volunteers was the sole cause of the prolongation of ihe war" was made to-day by Gen, Francisco Franco.
Referring to volunteers on the insurgent side, General Franco said ihat Germany and Italy had aided the nationalists "with the view that not only a war for the defence of the country was going on, but also a war for western civilization, of which Bolshevism is the principal enemy."
He declared that the control of Spanish coasts and frontiers "never had the acquiescence of the nationalists, inasmuch as reality demonstrated that the totally inefficient practice on the French-Catalan frontier was never an obstacle to the so-called Valencia government's receiving aid, materials and volunteers."
Such aid had never been permit ted on the Portugal frontier, he said, "because the Portuguese faithfully complied with the obligations of neutrality, and furthermore because Portugal lacks war industries.
United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.