SPANISH CASTLE

Tuesday marked the useful end of the Spanish Non-Intervention Committee. At London Ambassador Grandi read the death sentence--that Italy will not withdraw her troops while the war continues, and Premier Mussolini threw the switch in a statement at Rome instructing editors that Italy will not permit the government forces to prevail. Such an attitude by one country makes impossible any attempt to check effectively the support others are giving to the war. Once it was hoped that the bloodshed in Spain could be lessened by the withdrawal of foreign soldiers, a hope now almost dead. There remains as a method of relieving the situation only the stopping of the war itself.

Humane considerations and the danger of a general war apart, it is unwise to allow the fighting to keep on until one side crushes the other. The progress of the campaigns indicates a slow victory for the rebels; indeed Italy could never allow a Communist country to dominate the western Mediterranean. If the war works itself out, General Franco may become the military head of an impoverished country with the bulk of the working class opposed and the nations which sent him troops clamoring for return favors. Another powder barrel may be put in the magazine of Europe. The alternative is an armistice while the outcome of the war is still in doubt, and the erection of a moderate government to avoid the excesses either side might commit if victorious. However dream-like and impossible this solution may prove to be, it is at least a straw for Europe to clutch.

The first step towards a middle-of-the-road government is the cessation of hostilities under a board of arbitration. Immediately the foreign soldiers would tend to leave, for events show that Italy and Germany do not care what sort of a government is set up as long as it is not Communism, and that Russia feels similarly about Fascism. There is some chance that eight months of war have not wiped out all bases for a compromise by both sides aided in their negotiations by a third impartial country. As bait for maintenance of a moderate government and a real attempt to live peacefully the League of Nations might grant a large loan. It was bribery of this sort that set Central Europe on stable feet after the World War. Isolationist sentiment ties the hands of the United States, the logical country to offer itself as arbiter between the sides and as manager of the League loan. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1936 to the Foreign Minister of the Argentine directs attention to the part South America is starting to play on the world stage. Of the countries large enough to intervene Brazil is the best choice, particularly in view of its cultural affinity to Spain. Whatever statesmen do step forward may win reputations like that of Theodore Roosevelt after his arbitration of the Russo--Japanese War. At any rate, Italy having laid its cards on the table, it is time to start a new game.