Former Governor Makes Revelations; "Things Very Different Now," Says Gen. Harington project to the Vinson Bill today in the form of a $1,500,000 authorization for the construction of an air bast at Tongue Point, Oregon, to provide a link between the United States and aerial bases in Alaska—United Press.
Britain, France as Bulwarks London, Feb. 15.
At the time of the September crisis, Gibraltar had only four antisireraft guns, two at each end of the rock. This startling disclosure was made today by General Sir Charles Harington, former Governor of Gibraltar, whose five-year term of office expired last October.
General Harington, who made this statement at a meeting of the Royal Empire Society, said that at the time of the crisis Gibraltar was totally unprepared, "The French," he declared, "had certainly massed a large force on the Gpanish Moroccan border and might quite probably have taken Ceuta and Tetuan. My information was that General Franco had wished to be neutral; that Hitler had told him he could, tut he would use his bombers from Spanish aerodromes, and I think it quite likely that, if the French had jumped to Ceuta, Herr Hitler would have retaliated, and perhaps naturally, on Gibraltar. I had only four antiaircraft guns. I am told that things are very different now."
Speaking of events in Spain, General Harington declared that General Franco would turn to Great Britain for friendship; he would instal effective machinery of government; he would "kick fo death" the German and Italian troops, and he would not be dictated to by either Hitler or Mussolini.
"As "things look at present," General Harington proceeded, "the sooner General Franco wins and the German and Italian troops are removed, the better for the future of Spain and everyone."—Reuter, Washington, Feb. 15.
"When we see England and France go down, we are threatened," declared Mr. Stephen Pace, a member of the Military Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, in defending sales of war planes abroad in the House today.
"Isn't it better," he asked, "to sell England and France planes for defence than go to war with a big Power to prevent encroachment upon this hemisphere The United States, for "selfish reasons," would be forced defensively to aid Canada or Great Britain in ay emergency, he asserted. President Roosevelt might well have said: "Our first line of defence is England and France."
Mr. Pace reminded the House of the possibility of cession of Bermuda if Germany were ever victorious over England and France—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.