European War

Captain McCullagh Interviewed
British Government Supports Valencia "
A CONVINCING DENIAL THAT BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION COULD GENERAL FRANCO HAVE BEEN THE AUTHOR OF THE RECENT EPIDEMIC OF SUBMARINE PIRACY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN WAS MADE BY CAPT. McCULLAGH, THE FAMOUS WAR CORRESPONDENT, IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE CATHOLIC HERALD ON TUESDAY.
Forty years' concentrated work as a war correspondent has equipped Capt. NleCulhig-h with a sense of judgment more reliable than that of the majority of experts whose opinions are almost without exception directed by political and other prejudices.
Capt. MeCullagh agreed that it was madness for Great Britain not to recognise Franco's belligerent rights.
VOLUNTEERS WILL WITHDRAW THEMSELVES
By a Catholic Herald Staff Reporter.
" If a British battleship is sunk one of these days, it may lead to war between England and Italy, for Valencia will stop at nothing to prove that the culprit was an Italian. Personally, I am convinced that the attack on the Basilisk yesterday was made by a submarine of Valencia. It took place between Valencia and Alicante, in Red waters; and the submarine must have run for shelter to one of those Red harbours."
This opinion of the latest attack of " piracy " was given to me by Captain McCullagh, when I asked him to give the readers of the Catholic Herald his views about the latest developments in regard to Spain and the influence of the conflict on European affairs.
" That one of Franco's submarines is resportsib/e,he went on, " I cannot believe, for the discipline aboard the little Nationalist Fleet is astounding; that's why it dominates a Red Fleet which is twice as strong.
As Good as Our Own "I met the officers and middies' of Franco's battleships in Salamanca and Talavera, where they had to come on business, and was filled with admiration at their cleanliness. self-respect, pride in their country, and discipline. All the young officers and middies belong to the Phalanx, which has put a new spirit into them, making them quite equal to the best and most disciplined young officers in the British navy.
" On the other hand, what can you expect of Red cooks who, having cut the throats of their commanding officers with carving knives, are now in command of submarines (assisted, of course, by technicians who know how to navigate and to fight).
" All these men belong to the terrible F.A.I.,—the Federaciou Anarquista Iberica or the no less terrible U.G.T., and would be delighted to provoke an Anglo-ltalian war.
"Moreover, the Red papers in Barcelona and Valencia are now full of anti-British cartoons, holding up the British Navy to liclicule. What more likely, therefore, than that half-educated murderers, fed on such stuff, should launch a torpedo at the first English ship they see?"
British Policy Now Pro Red?
I suggested that it was madness on the part of Great Britain to side with the Red Navy, and allow it to be believed that the piracy was due to the Nationalists or the Italians.
"It is incomprehensible, but the Government does not want Franco to win; that's why Eden refuses to grant belligerent rights to Franco: if he did so, Franco would certainly soon win.
"The Times, the semi-official paper, is just the same. When the torpedo attack was made on the Leipzig. I wrote pointing out the danger from Russian aviators employed by Valencia, and from cut-throat sea-cooks in charge of Valencia's submarines (whose captains they had barbarously murdered). I asked if it were not likely that those gentry might take it into their heads to sink a British battleship some day just for the sake of creating trouble. And now an attempt is actually made to torpedo a British destroyer.
Always Polite!
" My letter brought me a very courteous note of thanks, but it was not published.
" And of course if a British war vessel does go down one of these days, no letter advocating sanity will be published. The Labour Party and the Communists in Great Britain will call for war, and all England will lose its head."
"It all goes back to Moscow inspiration," I suggested.
" Yes, and in a way that many people do not appreciate," the veteran war correspondent answered. " Do you realise that the Russian aviators and submarine commanders employed by the Spanish Reds have been instructed by Moscow to cause a European war so as to divert the eyes of the world from the horrible purges ' which Stalin is carrying out in Russia and from the humiliations Japan is heaping on Russia in the Far East?"
" Are you certain of that?" I enquired.
"I know it from my own contact with them in Spain when they were captured by Franco's troops, and you will find in my book how the late Sir Percival Phillips, then Daily Telegraph correspondent, agreed with mc."
Turning to another subject that is very much in the public eye, " non-interventtoo," C.aptain McCullagh held the unusual view that the attempt to force Italy to withdraw her volunteers was dangerous and unnecessary, since the volunteers would shortly withdraw themselves.
Anglo-French War Axis
" The point is that England and France are going perilously near to war about a matter which is solving itself," he explained. " The intense monotony of life in Salamanca, Burgos and Talavera will drive away all the Germans and Italians, unless Anglo-French threats make them stay. All the Germans are technicians, and all of them I met are Lutherans with absolutely no comprehension of the religious enthusiasm of their Spanish allies. They arc going sick.' by hundreds every week; swinging the lead ' would be a better way to put it. But I cannot blame them. Never in my life was 1 so miser able as „in Salamanca. If I had stayed, there would have been only a nervous breakdown or madness for me.
Too Dull For Germans " All of them will go sick,' or go mad, or get out somehow. The grey austerity of Spanish life in winter will be too much for them. Another winter would kill me."
Further extracts from Capt. AfcCullagh's book In Franco's Spain will be published next week.