SPAIN'S CIVIL WAR NEARING CLIMAX.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 183, 4 August 1936, Page 7

SPAIN'S CIVIL WAR NEARING CLIMAX.

ISSUE IN BALANCE. Fate of Madrid Likely to Be Deciding Factor. LULL FOR REINFORCEMENT. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 12.30 p. 111.) LONDON, August 3. Before launching fresh, large-scale offensives both the Government forces and the insurgents in Spain arc awaiting reinforcements, which are increasingly becoming available, though the Government front at Guadarrama is chiefly benefiting. The impression prevails in Madrid that the issue of the civil war depends upon the fate of the capital, which is again in the balance with the inception of the second Guadarrama struggle.

The principal activities at present are confined to north-eastern Spain, and the adjoining provinces of Huesea and Saragossa. The capital of the latter remains the crucial point in this arena. It is the most strongly fortified military position in Spain, and its fate will decide the fate of Madrid and therefore of the whole peninsula. Fierce Fighting in Saragossa. Fighting in the vicinity of Saragossa lias been very fierce. The Government won Caspesee, where corpses served as parapets for both sides. Colonel Sandino, the Loyalist commander, reports bombing a rebel nest at Quinto, immediately south of Pino, destroying the railway station and blowing lip the line. Another Government column approached Huesca after silencing rebel guns with artillery and aircraft, hut the insurgents are entrenched, and armed with machine-guns and trench auortars, and are vigorously replying -with a bombardment from a strategicpoint at Monte de Aragon, overlooking the town.

General Queipo Dellano, rebel commander in Seville, declares that one of General Mola's columns reached Torrclodones, 15 rwiles from Madrid, on which a force from the south is closing-, while his own men occupied Ayamonte, 25 miles west of Huelva, and also San Lucar de Barrameda, 20 miles north of Cadiz, but he previously made similar claims which later events discounted.

Two hundred volunteers of various nationalities reached Barcelona from France to enlist in the Government militia.

The weather stopped all fighting on the extreme northern front, fog reducing visibility to a few yards and making mountain tracks unusable.

STAND OF POWERS. France and Britain Not to Send Arms to Spain. BIG ORDERS TO BELGIUM. (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 3. The Spanish Government continues to send air cargoes of gold to France. It is reported these are for -the purchase of aeroplanes and munitions, but M. Delbos, French Foreign -Minister, still insists that France is not intervening. Urgent telephonic consultations were exchanged -\*itli British Cabinet Ministers on a French Note suggesting united action in the Spanish crisis. Britain's answer, indicating readiness to agree not to dispatch arms to Spain, will shortly he sent to Paris. The Belgian Cabinet Committee, in view of large orders from the Loyalists and from rebels for arms, decided to create an export license system. Funds are being collected and meetings held throughout Russia to assist Spanish Loyalists. TROTSKY IN NORWAY. TRIP TO SPAIN DENIED. (Received 9.30 a.m.) I OSLO, August 3. Leo Trotsky, famous Russian agitator who was yesterday reported to have landed in Spain on a Soviet oil tanker, is in the city and denies that lie intends to leave Norway. AIR ACTIVITY. 18 ITALIAN AEROPLANES. LONDON, August 3. From Algiers it is reported that the number of Italian aeroplanes delivered in Morocco is 18, exclusive of three which crashed. A message from Seville states that 12 Caproni three-engined bombers and two Junkers have been delivered to insurgents. Mr. Campbell Black, joint winner of the Melbourne Centenary air race, has left Lisbon for the rebels' headquarters at Burgos in a three-engined chartered aeroplane. He is supposed to be conveying an important Spanish passenger.