this grim situation. He does not} believe that any responsible government would plunge Europe into war for the mere satisfaction of asserting the efficacy of a particular system of national thought in solution of a foreign country's affairs. If it be possible heavily to discount some of the reports regarding Gor-man and Italian movements, then there is reason to hold that the Non-Intervention Committee may) preserve its integrity, The paradoxical feature of the situation lies it the fact that, whereas a democratic country like Great Britain has been able effectively—so far as can be judged—to maintain her nationals' neutrality, the countries which admittedly accept the overriding authority of the State in every department of life are apparently unable to convince the world that their neutrality has re~ mained. unimpaired. Now _that Germany and Italy have taken the decisive step of recognizing General Franco's Government their positions become all the more equivocal. It behoves Soviet Russia, in' the circumstances, to be exceedingly wary, but that is exactly what Soviet Russia scorns disinclined to bbe and if half the reports of the assistance which she Is rendering to the Spanish Government are true, she is definitely provoking counteraction by the two Fascist powers. Great Britain and France, in this grave emergency, are endeavouring to tighten up the observance of neutrality in the fullest sense of the term. They perceive the unreality of the claim to interference with! the internal affairs of Spain, although they cannot be blind to the extent to which that claim has already been enforced on one side or the other. At all costs the crazy notion of setting the world in arms for a gigantic duel to establish the dominance of one of two doctrinal theories must be discouraged. Sobriety still exists in Great Britain and France to strengthen the hands of the Non-Intervention Committee.
It is to be hoped that the better judgment of the three crusaders will find scope for expression and so save them from themselves.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.