SEEKING SAFETY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 245, 29 July 1936, Page 5

SEEKING SAFETY

EMBASSIES REMOVED.

BARCELONA POSITION IMPROVED

EVACUATING BRITISH SUBJECTS

(Received This Day, 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, July 23

The British Ambassador has transferred his headquarters from San Sebastian to Zarauz, a quiet seaside resort nearby. The other Embassies, with the exception of the French, arc also moving to less dangerous positions.

The situation of Barcelona is improving. Advantage is being taken of the lull at iSarogossa to evacuate as many British subjects as possible.

DIPLOMATS RESIGN POSTS.

DESIRE TO REMAIN NEUTRAL.

APPEAL FOR AID IN BRITAIN. LONDON, July 26. Don Pedro Garcia Conde, Spanish Minister Plenipotentiary in London, has resigned and gone to Brussels, because of his desire to remain neutral. Spanish diplomats abroad are acting similarly, including the charges d’affaires in Paris, Brussels and Lisbon. The Spanish Ambassador has been recalled from Berlin and the entire personnel of the Spanish Legation at the Hague has packed up. Commander Estrada, naval attache, and Major Villegua, military attache at Rome, have sent a telegram to General Franco, the rebel leader, expressing complete approval of the rebellion. They do not intend to resign, but will obey tho rebel Government at Burgos in tho conviction that it will shortly be transferred to Madrid. The Spanish Ambassador at Rome refuses to comment.

Senor Alvarez de Albornoz, the new Spanish Ambassador in France, lias arrived in Paris to replace Senor Juan Francisco de Cardenas, who resigned because he refused to co-operate in the dispatch of arms to kill his Spanish brothers.

The British National Council of Labour has appealed ior financial aid for distressed Spanish workers. The Trades Union Council has contributed £IOOO. Mr H. G. W r ells, Lord Allen of Turtwood, Sir Stafford Cripps, and other prominent men have appealed to the British Government to allow loyalist Spanish warships to be refuelled and provisioned at Gibraltar. In spite of the refusal of the authorities there, the signatories of the appeal declare that tho refusal is contrary to established international law, and urge the British Government to apologise to the Spanish Government and to extent to it all the courtesy and assistance which the Government of a friendly nation is entitled to expect.

LOOTING IN MALAGA.

THIRTY MONKS MURDERED.

REBELS SHOOT PRISONERS. LONDON, July 28. The main shopping centres of Malaga and the fashionable suburb of Liinonar were burnt to the ground. The looters are now entering shops in the side streets and demanding supplies at revolver point. The Government, having declared the cruiser Almirante Cervera a pirate ship because of her surrender to the rebels, announces that her crew is subject to arrest and trial in accordance with the penal code of any country capturing her. „ .

The Government is shelling Majorca (the biggest of the Balearic islands) in the hope of inducing it to surrender. The Estepona casualties are 600 dead, including 400 loyalists, and 1200 wounded. San Roque, 20 miles south-west ot Estepona, is still in rebel hands aftei the slaughter of 200 loyalists with tho aid of Moorish troops. The victims were poorly equipped workers of the militia. Tho rebels at La Linea, after annihilating hundreds of loyalists with a loss of 60 rebels, shot 40 prisoners in a barrack yard, including a suspected carabineer captain and 16 men. Obey declare that 100 more behind bars will never see another morning. The fighting is now continuous. The Moroccans are harrying the retreating loyalists, who are firing the pinewoods in order to cover their retreat. The Madrid correspondent of “The Times” says the president drove out after dark and was greeted everywhere by the populace. The night life of tho city, which is such a prominent feature of life in the capital, has been partly resumed. Trade unionists occupied the lontalba Theatre, where an announcement states: “Hero will rise from tho cinders of the bourgeois tho art theatre of the people.” The Geneva correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says 600 Italians and 400 Germans and other refugees have arrived from Barcelona. I hey report that several German Nazis and Italian Fascists were among those murdered by communists. Many Italian shops were sacked. The refugees state that .‘3O monks were murdered at one monastery.