OCR Text |
Show SHOWDOWN ' IN SPAIN CRISIS IS IMMINENT By UNITED PRESS Nineteen years ago today the Versailles treaty was signed, designed to end war, but today the peace of Europe again was . menaced by the bombing of British ships, in the Spanish civil war.- The British government fought for time, hoping that the situation would solve itself, but it was predicted that a showdown is imminent. x Either Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain must take decisive action, meaning belligerent action to protect ships under the British flag, observers said, or the government gov-ernment must admit that the policy pol-icy of co-operation with Italy has broken down. ' Indignation Rises Chamberlain's wait-and-see policy pol-icy may be broken-down by the mounting indignation in parliament parlia-ment and among the British public against the apparent desertion of the "Rule Britannia" tradition of the sea. In the wake of yesterday's destruction de-struction of two British ships by Spanish insurgent bombers, came news, from Valencia of a new and destructive bombing of the British-operated British-operated port of Gandia on the eastern coast of Spain. No Military Objective-London Objective-London declared there is no real military objective in trie bombing of British ships, and that the bombing could not halt shipping to Spain because of the number of ships engaged, attracted by the immense profits to be gained. It was felt there must be some ulterior ulter-ior motive, destined to cause international in-ternational trouble. Mussolini Prepared Premier Benito Mussolini indicated indi-cated that he is not unprepared for possible. trouble when he held consultations in Rome with his chief military advisers. . While the international tension grew, the war within Spain showed no sign of reaching an early end. The Nationalist forces driving on Valencia were stalled temporarily as the Loyalists threw in fresh forces and began fortifying Valencia Valen-cia for a long siege, determined to fight to the death. Drive On Hankow . - On the other side of the world, Japanese shock troops, against desperate resistance, gained in their drive towards Hankow, the provisional Chinese capital. The Japanese, aided by airplanes, cut I through the Chinese forces and cut the first of 12 booms in the Yangtse river, defending Hankow. |