SAVAGE DEEDS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 244, 28 July 1936, Page 5

SAVAGE DEEDS

FIGHTING AND LOOTING.

SOLDIERS' APPALLING ACTS.

BLOODS‘HED IN SEVILLE. (United Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, July 27. The Spanish revolutionaries claim a success in the Guadarrama mountains, and announce that the Government troops have retired with heavy losses. Two Government leaders, Generals Caminero and Ramirez, with an infantry commander, Don Manuel Moras, fled to Portugal and surrendered to the authorities at Braganza. Three hundred rebel artillerymen from the Loyola barracks ‘at San Sebastian broke through the Government forces and took field guns into the hills overlooking the city and began a two hours’ bombardment. A loyalist detachment, accompanied by 'miners and the militia from Bilbao, launched a counter-attack on the gunners, who defiantly served the pieces in what the socialist leader Prieto describes as the “last death rattle of the rebellion.’ ’ Malaga may not be able to defendl itself because, though nominally under Government control, it is overrun with looting mobs, who have commandeered motors and are imprisoning and shooting all anti-Red citizens. They dragged out from prison General Paxtot, the former garrison commander, and shot him in cold blood. 4 . . The Governor of Valencia, which is in Government hands, has guaranteed the safety of Britons from ,Malaga, into which , starving Spaniards are crowdiing from adjacent districts. Two rebel aeroplanes, flying north—wards from Morocco, are reported to have been shot down. A sergeant pilot, flying a rebel officer from 3101‘occo to Spain, looped his machine, dropping the passenger out, after which he flew to Madrid and joined the Government. Fifty aeroplanes have arrived at Barcelona from France. They -are stated to be the first consignment of a Go‘vernment purchase of 300 machines. The British warship Douglas rescued the famous educational expert, Madame Montessori, from Barcelona, from where. a merchant ship took her to Gibraltar, together with 87 refugees, including a troupe of 16 English dancing girls, who herded into a schoolhouse and slept five nights on the concrete floor without undressing. The German battleship Admiral Scheer is expected in Barcelona shortly. Her sister ship, the .Deutschland, has arrived at San Sebastian, where the evacuation of refugees is proceeding satisfactorily. The presence. of these battleships has greatly added to Germany’s prestige. She has acceded to Austria’s request to safeguard her nationals in Spain. ' i The savagery in Seville. is described as appalling. Soldiers shot down unarmed workers, who seized any. weapons, from chairs and siphons to hatchets and razors. The rebels drove them into a house and then from storey ‘to storey and room to room untl they butchered them on the roofs with rifles and bayonets. . ,

OCCUPATION 0F AREAS.

THE SITUATION AT MADRID.

REBEL’S HOPES GROW FAINTER

LONDON, July 26. , Spain is divided between the opposing forces roughly as follows. The Government retains the whole of the south-east also the north-east between the coast and a line drawn halfway across the Pyrenees to 50 miles east of Madrid, also the Bilbao area, in the extreme north, while Madrid Barcelona, Valencia, Cordoba. are among the important towns under its control. The rebels hold the remainder of Spain, including Seville, round Gibraltar and the whole of Spanish Morocco. , The main areas of conflict or recent conflict are the mountain passes of the Sierras Guararrama. Rebel Kisses in this area are reported to be 2000, the Government losses being heavy. Other danger points, in order of importance, are Saragossa, where a battle is hourly expected, Segovia, Seville, Albacete and San Sebastian. . Spain to-day celebrated the feast of its patron, Saint (Saint James). The Bishop celebrated high mass at Pamplona, where (5000 troops and police, and 4000 civilians knelt in the public Square and prayed for revolutionary victory, after which volunteers, includ—ing many women, marched past as Gen—eral Cabanellas trick the salute. General Mola’s situation is much less favourable owing to direet‘Government check to his advance across the Guardarrama range and the Loyalist successes near Burgos and Logrono. As a result of the advance of the Loyalist columns from Catalonia, where Colonel Sandino is exercising effective command, General Perez Farris (Loy—alist commander), whose troopsgre approaching Saragossa, demanded the surrender of the city. The rebel, Gen—eral Cabanellas refused. The ,armies are expected to fight shortly. General Mola’s hopes of subduing Madrid, whether by starvation or by' co-ordination attack in combination. with General Franco’s forces from the south and from south-west, are growing; fainter. Government troops bar General Franco’s way in the north at Albacet and Loledo. His additional Moroccans, who were ferried or aeroplaned across the Straits last night to Algcrciras, are believed to have been disorganised by the bombing raid by Loyalist aeroplanes, one of which was brought down at sea. The vanguards of General Mola’s two columns, which had respectively reached within 15 and 36 miles of the Capital, have been driven back into the province of Segovia, upon which three Government columns are advancing. War correspondents who visited the rebel territory around Pamplona, in north-eastern Spain, report waning enthusiasm tempered with the growing conviction that at least a month must elapse before definite results can be achieved. Deseitcrs are crossing the French frontier midst streams of refugees.

Order has at last been restored in Barcelona, where: president Luis Companys, having broadcast an appeal to Citizens to refrain from further excesses, approved the 40~110ur week and increased pay to workers.