The furious debate in the House of Commons on the bombing of British shipping aeroplanes of the Spanish rebels is interesting as showing, after all due allowances re taken into account, the attitude which Labour might have taken in the matter had it been in power. Mr. Attlee's attack on the Government has to be taken for what it is, an attack by a political enemy of all that General Franco and his armies stand for, and an attempt on the other hand to persuade the British Government to take such action as might be of some assistance to the Spanish Government with its decidedly communistic complexion. There was a time, undoubtedly, and not so very long ago when Great Britain would have fought for very much less than what has occurred to British shipping around the coasts of Spain. But autres temps autres meeurs. In those by-gone days there was little prospect of precipitating a world war: such a prospect now exists. and the man "who undertakes steps against the Spanish rebels which might embroil the whole of Europe, if not the whole world, has upon his shoulders a responsibility of no mean proportions. Mr. Chamberlain is not going to have his hands forced, and his determination in this respect was clearly indicated in his reply to his critics. What is the position? Despite definite warnings, a certain number of shipping firms and sea-captains, because of the high profits to be made by taking just such risks as these bombings entail, are carrying on a trade which is attended by grave peril. The question then arises as to whether, having uttered its warning the British Government should take steps to prevent recurrence of these bombings, and to exact reparation. To that there are two answers. The one is that the dignity of the British Empire requires that its shipping should be allowed to proceed without let or hindrance in any of the seas of the world. The other is that if people disregard the warnings of their government they cannot expect that government to secure them that redress for wrongs done them while in a state of disobedience, It is readily admitted that there was no law to force these shippers to keep away from the ports of Spain, but the government's warning was sufficient indication of where they would stand if they carried on unheedingly.
There can be no questioning the logic of the Prime Minister's policy, even though in some quarters it may be an unpalatable one. There is evidence that in cases, where Nationalist aeroplanes have sought to interfere with British shipping on the high seas, immediate refection has been given them, but it is an entirely different proposition to expect similar protection to be given to people, who, for the sake of profit, follow a course of conduct against which they have been definitely advised. If the Government has a duty to British shipping, and it is freely admitted that it has, it must also be remembered that shipping has a very definite obligation to the Government, and these ships venturing into Republican harbours in times such as these were certainly not observing their part of the bargain. Mr. Attlee would have the Balearic Islands bombarded, arguing that neither Germany nor Italy could complain. Mr. Attlee may be quite right in his argument: on the other hand he may not, and it is no part of the duty of any Government to take chances, even though Mr. Here-Belisha has commented so favourably upon the great strength which Great Britain has already attained in her armaments. It is one of the causes for the great confidence, which important sections of British political thought have in the Prime Minister, that once he has adopted a policy he follows it consistently To him was bequeathed the policy of nonintervention. He accepted it and has sough! to carry it out with the utmost logic. He refuses to be diverted from it by any provocation. Undoubtedly in other sections of Briti public thought the dispassionateness w which he pursues his courses proves unpopular, but he is large enough a man to do what he thinks right and there are many who will believe in the correctness of his point of view.
Mr. Attlee was joined by Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Winston Churchill in his criticism of the Government. Mr. Lloyd George is twitted by the Prime Minister for ing what he meant, the meaning being that n his seventy-sixth year he still wished to involve his country in a war. He was a romantic figure in the Great War, and the Empire owes him an enormous debt for the way in which he captured public imagination and heartened them in the titanic struggle in which they were engaged. That, however, fails to make him an authority on when Great Britain should again fight, and perhaps, the only kind thing that can be said of such a leader at this juncture is that he was speaking from the irresponsibility of opposition rather than with the responsibility of power. It is a regrettable fact that the Opposition has for some months past sought to weaken the Government's position by endeavouring to fix the stigma of pusillanimity upon it. Paradoxically the very parties, which in the past have been so clamantly pacific, now profess to desire war on provocation such as this. It would be idle to take them too seriously, though there is always the possibility that if Labour had been in the saddle during these past two years there would not only have been no policy of non-intervention, but that it would have been persuaded to come to the assistance of a political ideology which has ne very great support amongst those people not imbued with the various encarnadined tints of the Left and extreme Left. Mr. Chamberlain asks the nation to exercise forbearance: the Opposition waves the Union Jack and appeals to the red cor-muscles of the British to make this bickering in Spain a free-for-all. The time may come when Mr. Chamberlain will feel obliged to vindicate British prestige in matters such as these, but it will certainly not be on so bad a case as that which the bombed shipping interests can at the moment present. If it should be it would amount to a gross betrayal of the Empire, for if there were any time when a cause needs to be good it is at present.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.