-2- Thirdly : It can be seen from this that whatever may be the fate of the plan of the London Committee, and whether or not it is considered as being in force, there is a fundamental and permanent reason for opposing the concession of belligerent rights to the insurgents before the withdrawal of all the foreigners taking part in the Spanish struggle has been, by one/means or another, within or without the framework of the London Committee's plan, virtually completed. It is not a question of a purely formal connection between the recognition of belligerent rights and the London plan, which might disappear so soon as the latter ceased to be considered in force. Respect of the basic principles of international morality demands the maintenance of the principle which inspired the plan of the London Committee. This principle requires that the recognition of belligerent rights shall not even be discussed until the virtually complete withdrawal of foreigners has shown that the actual situation which the insurgents bring forward as a justification of their demand is a genuinely Spanish one and not the result of foreign assistance. Fourthly : That this is the case as far as the Spanish Government is concerned, has been proved not only by their immediate and unreserved acceptance of the plan of the London Committee for the withdrawal of foreigners, but also by their proposal for the unilateral withdrawal, under the auspices of an international commission appointed at the Government's request by the League of Nations, of the genuine foreign "volunteers" who were fighting in its army. (This proposal was immediately acted upon, and as a result all the foreigners have been withdrawn from the fronts and the majority repatriated.) And if the acceptance of the plan of the London Committee, and the proposal of unilateral withdrawal of their own foreigners is authentic proof that the situation of the Government has been brought about exclusively by the suppo %rt given by genuine Spanish elements, the refusal of the insurgents to accept this plan, and the absence of any proposal on their part for the integral and complete withdrawal, under international control, of all the foreigners assisting them, must be logically considered as equally authentic proof of the contrary. To |