SAVING BRITONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 193, 15 August 1936, Page 9

SAVING BRITONS.

I m DIFFICULTIES SEEN. Skeleton Staff Endangered At Mines. TRAINLOAD OF FOREIGNERS. British Official Wireless. (Received 1 p.m.) RUGBY, August 14. i Press reports from various parts - of Spain show little change in the 3 position. Favourable news of the j first trainload of foreign refugees i being evacuated by way of Alicante, i where three British ships are . stationed, is said to have been received . in Madrid. ,Information has readied London ver garding difficulties which have arisen f over evacuation of British subjects | - employed at the Rio Tiuto mines in ; Spain. Huelva, the port of departure, 1 is in an area at present controlled by I rebel forces, and the mines are in an i area where resistance to the insurgents , continues. . Arrangements for withdrawal of - British members of the staff have, there- : fore, to be made with the two sides. The insurgents raised no difficulties about the passage of refugees for embarkation on a British destroyer at Huelva, but ' the local miners' committee, for an un't known reason, objected to their departure. It is only a depleted British staff which remains at tlie mines,'which have | not been working for some time. Ten days ago, on the advice of an executive of the company in London, 1 about 100 British employees left for home. The number remaining, whose ! evacuation is now in question, is stated to be 38. Latest advice received by the London - office is to the effect that the British [ employees are well and safe, and on good terms with the Spanish .workers: A few days ago they were offered a safei conduct from the mines but they decided to stay on. i The British Government, through the British Consul in Madrid and the i Spanish Ambassador to Loudon, asked that wireless, instructions should be sent to local representatives of the Spanish Government to facilitate withdrawal of British employees. The British Consul at Huelva is also continuing his efforts to secure their departure and safe passage. REBUILD CHURCHES. REBEL LEADERS' BROADCAST. (Received 10.30 n.m.) LONDON, August 14. The rebel leader at Seville, broadcasting last night, said: "We will grind the blood and bones of the people of Valencia with a pestle into mortar and make cement to rebuild the churches they have destroyed." SINISTER MOTIVES? NON-INTERVENTION DELAY. e LONDON, August 14. The diplomatic correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian" says the impression is becoming deeper in London that both Italy and Germany are holding up non-intervention while aiding the rebels in the hope that they will > be able to win decisive victories in the near future. Both sides in Spain are making renewed efforts to secure foreign support. The President, Don Azana, told a French journalist that France's frontier now is Guadarrama and that if Fascism wins it will hold the Pyrenees.

France must also ask herself who shall hold Morocco, the Balearic Islands and the Mediterranean and African communications. Two hundred Liberals from most of the Euro]>eaii countries. including Viscount Churchill and Sir Norman Angell, met in Paris and passed a resolution that any neutrality in face of the present situation would be suicidal and tantamount to strengthening Fascism.