Spain Campaign Committee : Labour Press Service : supplement

              Labour Press Service
10 Nov. 1937
PRESS SERVICE SUPPLEMENT.
LABOUR PARTY
SPAIN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE.
The Labour Party through its Spain Campaign Committee has issued a statement on the aims of the present campaign on behalf of Democratic Spain and on the issues involved.
We appeal to all the members of the party for their active and enthusiastic co-operation in this Campaign.
Winter is upon us.      "So far, nothing is lost and nothing is won in Spain".       Democratic Spain is getting ready to spend its second winter in the trenches.     The People's Army now exists. Again and again its courage has been proved on many battle-fronts.
But Democratic Spain is not merely confronted with enemies within. It has now been recorded by the Assembly of the League of Nations that there are foreign army corps in Spain.     Our Spanish friends have to defend their freedom on the field of battle against men and resources of Hitler and Mussolini.     The war in Spain is an international war.
The duty which is imposed upon us is an international Socialist duty.   We owe it to those who fight and to those who suffer in Spain not to be guilty of moral desertion, but to testily to our faith in them and in their Cause on every possible opportunity.     We are not neutrals in this conflict.     We have never been neutrals;   we never will be neutrals;    we cannot be neutrals.
We fervently desire the victory of the Spanish Republicans, who are giving their lives to defend Democracy in Spain.      If Spain is
lost to Democracy, Hitler and Mussolini will be able to inscribe on their blood-stained banners the name of yet another people whose only crime is their love of freedom.
We have a political obligation to renew and intensify our agitation against the restrictions which are imposed on the Spanish Government in the purchase of the weapons indispensable for victory.
We demand unconditional freedom of commerce for the Spanish Government in the purchase of arms.
We demand the immediate withdrawal of the foreign troops in Spain, in order to put an end to a shameful act of aggression.
We oppose the concession to Franco, under the name of belligerent rights, of the right to search, sink or detain ships on the high seas carrying food supplies and war material to Democratic Spain.
We oppose any concessions in international law and status to Franco.    He is a rebel.    His troops are invaders.    His ships are pirates.
A second winter of war in Spain brings home to us other duties. And Governments cannot or dare not hinder us in the fulfilment of those imperative duties.     Democratic Spain has to endure a stupendous internal strain, on its economic resources.    Civil war not only divides a country, its economic and human resources are disorganised. The needs of the army have first claim.   But when the armies of Franco advance, refugees flee elsewhere.