Evening star., 1937-01-15
j. s. NEUTRALITY
DRIVE IS PUSHED
But Sympathizers Persist
in Aid to LoyaIists De-
spite Ac0Sta Probe.
~ the Associated Press.

~ the Assoclateo frebs.
NEW YORK. January 15.-The
Government, seeking complete Amer
ican neutrality in the Spanish civil
war. brought its great powers Of moral
and legal suasion into play. while
undeterred American sympathizers
with Madrid went on mastering men
to fight the battles Of Loyalist Spain.
These developments occurred in q
struggle made dramatic by its impli-
cations and by the very quiet in which
1t was being waged:
/. Bert Acosta, one Of the most
picturesque Of American pilots, and o
fellow flyer, Gordon Berry, returning
voluntarily from brief service as Span
ish government war pilots, were met
by Federal agents at Quarantine and
rushed on to the Federal Building
to tell their story.
The agents said Uncle Sam wanted
to know who hired the aviators, and
all the other circumstances. Undes
law. maximum penalties Of three years
imprisonment and $1,000 fines may
be levied for enlistment in the United
States for armed service in foreign
state.
L0yalist Aid Continues.
2 While Acosta and Berry were be-
fore the grand jury, Jack Altman. a
New York official of the Socialist
party, said the equipping of volun-
teers to aid LOyalist Spain in the
eugene Debs' column" would con-
tinue. Volunteers were coming into
the column in such satisfactory num-
bers, he said. that quota" OF 500
set for New York was expected TO be
met.
Already, he added, some 40 men, in
cluding technicians and military ex-
perts, had gone across.
Altman contended no man Joining
the Debs column was violating the
law. They volunteer-they aren't
asked to-" he said. Besides, they take
no oath Of allegiance to Madrid" He
explained the Socialists were support
ing the project. but it officially was
being equipped by an organization
known as the Friends of the Debs
Column"
8. In Washington a score-odd men,
bers of the House organized for an at
tempt to pass the most rigid Of new
neutrality legislation.
Ambulance Unit Formed.
Even as Altman was making clear
that no halt in the Debs column prof.
ect was contemplated, the Medical
Bureau OF the American Friends of
Spanish Democracy here was making
plans for a farewell meeting for Is
members OF a surgical and ambulance
unit organized to support the Spanish
Loyalists This mission, called the or
ganization's first" sails Saturday.
At a meeting of the personnel yes
terday Ernest Hemingway and John
Dos Passos, the American writer's, an
nounced they, too, would leave soon
for Spain to give whatever help they
could to Madrid. Just what they
would do was not made clear, but
writing about the war was among
their plans.
The State Department. publishing
q warning of the invocation of crimi-
nal statutes against enlistments in
this country. had appealed to patriot
ism through statement by Acting
Secretary r. Walton Moore. To en-
list on either Spanish side. he said,
was "unpatriotically inconsistent with
the American Governments policy OF
the most scrupulous ron-intervention
in Spanish internal affairs"
Before appearing at the Federal
Building Acosta had said he and Berry
were "motivated in leaving Spain by
the fact that President Roosevelt was
working out his own ideas on neu-
trality laws. We didn't want to get
into any foreign entanglements. We
were going to get out whether we got
paid by the Spanish government or
not" The flyers claim Madrid still
owes them $500 apiece for their
services.)