REVOLT ENDED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 128, 13 March 1939, Page 5

REVOLT ENDED

REPUBLICANS CLEAR MADRID. f RESUMPTION OF TRAM SERVICES. MOUNTAIN POSTS PRESSED. (United Press Association —Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) MADRID, March 12. The Premier (Senor Miaja) claims that- the Communist revolt ip Madrid has ended. Hundreds of prisoners have been liberated. The Republicans cleared the eastern boundaries of Madrid and recaptured Ohamartin el Pardo. Lorries are distributing provisions and the tram service has resumed. A few Communist posts in the Guaclerama mountains are expected to be shortly subdued.

MACHINE-GUNNING IN STREETS. REPUBLICAN BOMBARDMENT. MADRID, March 12. In spite of the Republican claim that the Communists have surrendered, violent fighting continues. Bitter fighting raged in the fashionable north-eastern quarter of Madrid. The entrances of the underground railway were the scenes of savage conflicts. The Communists are machine-gunning the streets, where a mass movement of troops is impossible. The Republicans attacked the office of the newspaper “A.B.C!” in the hope of dislodging the Communists, who captured the secret police headquarters and repeatedly assailed the Princessa Hospital. Civilians are starving. Many of .them were shot on the "outskirts in attempting escape. i Republican artillery bombarded the Communist headquarters, which vainly called tanks by telephone. The defenders yielded after an hour’s fighting. The Republicans then recaptured the Salamanca quarter and recovered a trench in the scarred north-eastern district. From Valencia it was reported that the dreaded secret policehad been dissolved and their leaders arrested. It was reported from Alicante that the Communist members of the t-own council had been dismissed. MIAJA’S SON RELEASED. EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. HEN®AYE, 'if arch 10. General Franco lias released General Miaja’s son after 12 months’ detention as a hostage, -and has permitted him to rejoin his father in Madrid. He *s being exchanged for the son of the late General Primo de Rivera.

NO ACTION BY FRANCO. OUTCOME OF STRUGGLE AW 7 AITED MADRID, March 10. Far from General Miaja having succeeded in subjugating the Communists, a desperate battle is raging. Some accounts even indicate that General Miaja is cut off from the remainder of the Republican zone. The Communists refused to implement their leader’s promise to surrender. General Franco’s troops, who are entrenched on the opposite side of the city to Canallejas Barajas, where the Republicans are tombing redoubts, are fortunately inactive, apparently awaiting the outcome of the internecine struggle which, is playing into their hands. The Communists’ most spectacular loss was the 17-storey telephone exchange, which has figured in many accounts of the bombardments of Madrid, 1 and was further damaged in the latest encounters. The conflict in the Plaza de Manuel Becerra, which was supposedly settled in favour of General Miaja, engaged all the available weapons of both sides and transformed the street into a. shambles with fierce hand-to-hand bayonet and hand-grenade encounters. Meanwhile the citizens remain in cellars unable to join the food queues, and frenzied radio appeals, and planes skimming over the roofs dropping pamphlets, vainly urge the Communists to yield. Minor conflicts continue in the villages of Hortaleza, Charmartin, and Camillas, north-north-east of the capital. The result is slowly swaying in favour of the Republicans. TO BE REPATRIATED. 25,000 MILITIAMEN IN FRANCE. (Received This Day, 12.15 p.m.) PARIS', March 12. A Perpignan message states that 25,000 militiamen will shortly bo repatriated to Spain from the Argeles concentration camp, via Hendaye.