While the Spanish insurgents claim to have captured Teruel, the Government admits that the rebels have succeeded in entering the, oltskirts of the town, and, whichever version. correct, it is apparent that the rebels "have again Geen able to make considerable headway against a town which they once captured and which the Government forces took away from them. If Teruel is captured and can be held it should prove a formidable threat to Madrid Helfand would mark a further, if somewhat slow advance, towards the conquest which Gen, Franco is so long in effecting. The severity of the fighting around Teruel during the last two months ix indicated by the fact that the. total casualties on both sides are estimated to be in the neighbourhood of 80,000 killed and wounded, It fx feared that this rebel success will have the effect of again deferring the reaching settlement of the question regarding the_withdrawal of volunteers from Spam. Gen. Franco will doubtless want to retain all the assistance he at present has for the purpose of enlarging his gains, while the Government will be reluc: fant to diminish their strength in view of the Increasing -desperatenesx of the "siltation, "In this war between ideologies scant attention paid to. the effects of combatants' policies on the peace of Europe, and it is apparent that so lent fas this problem of volunteer withdrawal is. me Aluenced by the variations of the struggle in Spain, that settlement may stil! be deterred for a very long time. The effect of this "upon Anglo-Italian agreement must be to delay the fatter s0 long as the volunteer issue Is reyurded one of the main points of difference between Britain and aly, "and is probably the "real reason why Mr. 'Chamberlain' is so insistent that it shall not be included as one. of the essential points 10 be dealt with in the con: versations to which he looks forward,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.