MASSACRES AS REPRISALS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 263, 19 August 1936, Page 5

MASSACRES AS REPRISALS.

THOUSAND EXECUTED IN MADRID.

REBELS BURN PRISONERS ALIVE. FOREIGN LEGIONARIES ARRIVE. (United Press Association —Copyright.) . (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, August 18. The frontier correspondent of “ The Times” says that the clearest fact emerging from the Spanish situation is the steady increase in merciless cruelty and repression, both sides claiming the latest massacre as a reprisal. A thousand people are reported to have beten executed in Madrid in two nights, mostly at the labour headquarters. Rebels deliberately burnt alive prisoners at A 1 Aharal, Andalusia, and committed other atrocities. An ominous development for the Government is the arrival at Valladolid of 1000 crack foreign legionaries from Morocco, completing the junction of the northern and southern rebel armies. These are the! first instalment of Teivio troops, who fought their way through from Algeciras and Caceras northwards. General Mola has arrived at Valladolid with a mechanised column from Burgos. He reviewed the desert fighters prior to the'ir departure for the northern front. They include men whose brutal suppression of the miners’ revolt at Oviedo in 1934 earned undying hatred. , They are drilled with admirable' precision and wear khaki uniforms, but normally go into action stripped to the waist. Cheering thousands gave them an ovation, including girls carrying flags and boys dressed in Fascist uniforms. The principal Government success was the engagement at Medellin, 66 miles east of Badajoz, with the rebels moving northwards. The loyalists routed a powerful hostile column by five successive swoops by four bombing ’planes, the rebels, besides those dead, losing 30 lorries and 300 prisoners. The insurgents, however, held all the roads between Seville and Merida. In the north, Irun still holds out, despite five onslaughts by the rebels. Fort Guadeloupe is blocking the rebel advance, not only to Irun but also to San Sebastian. The ex-Premier, Count Romanones, is among the Government hostages. The Government forces at Santailder seized the 500-ton steamer Tiburon, which has been fitted up as a privateer to obtain supplies for the Almira nte Cervera. An aeroplane located the Tiburon and employed bombs to silence her guns and out her engines out of action, after which the pursuers boarded her, losing several men from rifle fire. Her commander, Lieutenant Montajo, also the crew will face a courtnartial. , , „, In the south, insurgent columns are approaching Malaga from two sides.