WAR RACING WITH UNDIMINISHED FURY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 194, 17 August 1936, Page 7

WAR RACING WITH UNDIMINISHED FURY.

PRISONERS SHOT. Battle to Occupy Badajoz. CHURCH FUNDS CONFISCATED. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 16. The civil war in Spain is raging with undiminished ferocity. Both sides are shooting prisoners with or without summary courts-martial. Some 733 insurgent captives, including priests, are reported to have been executed and 7000 are said to be under arrest. Madrid police opened a safe deposit in the Credit Lyonnais Bank and confiscated £2,500,000, mostly belonging to religious institutions. Father Luis Eodes, famous Jesuit astronomer and a Loyalist, in the town of Tortosa, Catalonia, has been allowed to pursue his work in perfect safety in his undamaged observatory.

Victorious rebels are completing mopping up operations at Badajoz, and are preparing strong defence lines around the town. They are reconditioning damaged forts and awaiting the arrival of a fresh insurgent column with 15 anti-aircraft guns. Meanwhile General Yague is reorganising his 4000 Foreign Legionaries (Moroccans, officered by Spaniards) preparatory to advancing on Madrid. Messages from the frontier state that the Spanish insurgents occupied Badajoz at 6.45 yesterday after fierce fighting in the streets. Wholesale Executions Follow. The newspaper "O Seculo" reports that 1500 combatants were killed in the battle for Badajoz, most of them in the attackers' bomb and bayonet charges. The defenders dynamited buildings in order to hamper the insurgents, at whom airmen also fired machine-guns. Mass executions of Loyalists followed the rebels' triumph. Airmen in two Government aeroplanes later bombed the insurgents. British and Portuguese newspaper correspondents who flew over Badajoz during the final grim resistance report that there was most savage hand-to-liand fighting as the Loyalists, with the courage of desperation, contested every inch of the insurgents' advance near the international bridge. All captured Loyalists were butchered like sheep against the lurid background of the burning city. Native troops, who formed a considerable part of the rebel forces, lived up to their reputation for ferocity. The sickened and horror-stricken correspondents landed on the Portuguese side of the frontier and unloaded medical supplies and food for the relief of refugees. Insurgent airmen kept up a persistent bombardment of the town, little of which now remains.

BRITISH 'PLANES. Fatal Crashes on Route to Spain. SOLD TO POLISH FIRM. (Received 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, August 10. Two Fokker three-engined aeroplanes flew over Biarritz toward Spain. One developed engine trouble and the pilot tried to land at the aerodrome at Anglet. The machine crashed and caught fire and the only occupant, Count Lasocki, was burned to death. It is thought that the machine was one of four which left Gatwick aerodrome, England, ostensibly for Poland. The British United Press says the pilot was a Pole. Another Fokker from Gatwick crashed when landing at La Rochelle. The only occupant, a Polish pilot, was detained. He says he "was bound for Portugal. British Airways state that they sold Fokker machines to a Polish firm in good faith, taking the precaution to secure a written statement that they were destined for commercial purposes in Poland. The firm was not responsible for their diversion to Spain. Three more de Havilland Dragons left Croydon. Their destination is reported to be Barcelona. REBELS ON TRIAL. HOSTAGES AND WAR HORRORS (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, August 10. The Spanish Government has arrested 100 people at Valencia. A search of houses revealed Monarchist banners, and documents, including a manifesto stating that ex-King Alfonso would return to Spain. The trial has commenced in the Madrid Supreme Court of the insurgent leaders, General Fanjul and Colonel Quintana, on a charge of inciting soldiers to rebel on July 19. General Fanjul admitted complicity in the uprising as he was morally opposed to the Government. War hostages have added to the horrors of the campaign in Spain. Both Sides are seizing the families of prominent men and threatening to kill them if this or that town is bombed.

Three leaders of the rebellion in San Sebastian —all artillery officers were tried by court-martial and shot after making last confessions to a Carmelite priest. "PATRIOT" ARMIES. FIGHT FOB CHRISTIANITY. (Received 1 p.m.) LONDON, August 16. The "News Chronicle," in a leading article, points out that two of three "patriot" armies which stormed Badajoz consisted of Moors, and the third of foreign soldiers of fortune, all su l'~ posedly fighting in the interests of Christianity and European-civilisation#