With the announcements by the'spokesmen of the Spanish Government and the rebel that each of them intend to fight until the unconditional surrender of the other, all talk of intervention on the part of Great Britain must be disregarded. Doubtless the British Government would like to offer its services for the final adjustment of this nearly two-year-old civil war, but despite the enormous slaughter, the hideousness of the fighting, and the long delay in coming to a decision, there are as yet no real prospects of an early peace. The time for mediation is not yet, and the predominant fear is that such a time will be long in coming. As things stand at the present time the rebels contemplate fighting until they have completely subdued the whole of Spain: the Repubjican Government is just as determined to fight to the bitter end, perhaps in the hope that by some caprice of fortune the defeat, which seems to be staring them in the eyes, will be transformed into that victory without which it cannot ye, This struggle in Spain d to be a civil war in the generally accepted sense and practically the only reason why it deserved the adjectival description of "Spanish" is because of the country in which conclusions are being tried out between two political ideologies. In the circumstances mediation does not appear to be called for, firstly, because neither side appears to be in the frame of mind to accept it, and the conclusion to be arrived at is that Europe—or at least that part of Europe not intimately bound up with the fortunes of this lamentable struggle—must stand by, helpless, until a conclusion is ultimately reached, and, secondly, because there can be no compromise between such political faiths as those represented by either side. That latter reason accounts for much of the callous brutality which has been displayed by both sides in Spain. There has been a ruthless smashing towards victory on the part of the rebels, and an equally ruthless resistance on the part of the Government in which the ordinary, simple Spaniard has been ground between the upper and nether millstones.
The bitterness prevalent on both sides of the fighting line can readily be understood in such circumstances, and, unless there comes about a very definite change of heart in both camps, mediation must necessarily prove abortive. There orb other reasons which have to be taken into account. The rebels, the map, are winning. They may not have progressed, with all the help they have received, so rapidly as they originally may have wished, but, on the balance, the lot of the Government has been one steady list o? reverses and the gradual loss of territory The insurgents are not likely to agree to anything which may diminish the results of the victory which they believe to be in sight The Government on the other hand realizes that mediation, and its concomitant com promise cannot in any way improve its posi tion, and the determination to fight to the end is consequently reinforced. It is obvious that, so long as a government is in being, it can accept only such mediation as would vindicate its authority. What are the chances of the whole rebellion collapsing? The reports of dissension amongst the Spanish officers of General Franco's army, arising out of their resentment over the manner in which the campaign is being conducted by officers of other nationality than themselves, may not be without a substratum of truth. They may recognize that, whatever regime is eventually established by the victorious rebels, the predominance of foreign influence must be expected. That is one of the prices which General Franco will have to pay for victory. Under him it would not be a case of "Spain for the Spaniards" but "Spain for the victorious ideology." That may be equally true of the Republican Government: their success would undoubtedly mean the same thing, and while the leaders on both sides may not care what happens, so long as they win, the average Spaniard is likely to have a very great strain placed upon his native patriotism. Consequently, while it may be premature to accept the present reports of unrest amongst the Spanish officers and troops of General Franco's armies, they are not to be wholly rejected as something which can never occur.
The average Spaniard may be forgiven if at this late hour he realizes that what commenced as a gentle bickering between Spanish gentlemen, has deteriorated into a free for all, in which the newcomers are likely to reap all the fruits of victory. He will by now have come to realize the merciless manner in which the insurgents are wreaking their indignation civilians inside the Government lines. It may truly be said that whatever the Nationalists are at present doing can be paralleled by the conduct of the Republicans during the early stages of the rebellion. Byt there is little of use in the rebel pot commenting upon the cherry coloured complexion of the Government kettle, while the blackish hue of the former is all the more emphasized by the fact that humanly speaking victory being ultimately in their hands these demonstrations of inhuman frightfulness, having nothing to commend themselves but everything to arouse the most widespread and bitterest condemnation. If there ever was a side hich could afford to be magnanimous it is certainly that of the rebels at this juncture. Present behaviour naturally leads to the question as to what will happen if and when the insurgents win. Will it be necessary to purge the ranks of those who have stood loyally by their government, to punish them for the political b.liefs for which during the past two years they have shed their blood? The totalitarian state which General Franco seeks to set up must remove all possibilities of opposition. He can, therefore, offer no terms except those of abject surrender. That the Government is not prepared to accept, and so, so far as can be seen, mediation is entirely out of the picture. Spain is condemned to wallow in its bath of blood until some sort of sanity is restored. That is the tragedy of it all. If the Spaniards were working out their own salvation things might not look so bad: but a race is having its salvation worked out for it, and the process is bringing about a sorry mess, Cholera Certificates From today, it is compulsory as far as areas under Japanese army control are concerned for both foreigners and Chinese to possess certificates of cholera inoculation, and these certificates must be shown on entering Hungjao before access to these areas is possible. Farther afield' in Shantung and North China ports in Japanese possession the same regulation applies. It was stated by the Japanese authorities recently that a certificate signed by any doctor, including Chinese, is acceptable as the necessary evidence required, but experiences of the last few days do not indicate this. Doctors' certificates vary in character and as there are doctors of many nationalities it is to be expected that certificates in a variety of languages will be offered and it cannot be expected that the Japanese sentries on duty possess that multi-lingual knowledge which will ensure the possessor of a certificate smooth passage into Japanese-controlled territory. In some cases, Japanese certificates have been issued and it perhaps would be a practical scheme to establish a central office where cerlificates could be stamped with an official Japanese "chop" intelligible to the sentries rather than the presentation of a document which they Possibly cannot understand, despite the degree of medical authority with which it is endorsed. As the Japanese are fully determined to el force this regulation, the best plan is to clevis means whereby compliance will be free from avoidable difficulties:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.