REJECTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 1 September 1936, Page 7

REJECTED.

REBEL ULTIMATUM.

Unceasing Battle for Irun Grows More Bitter.

REFUGEES' PITIFUL PLIGHT. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, August 31. A message from the frontier town of Hendaye says that thousands of refugees from Irun crossed the French border after the insurgents had delivered an ultimatum that they would begin the bombardment of Irun at dawn. It is reported that only fighting men remain in the town.

The Loyalists rejected the ultimatum and are extending their trenches. They are determined to fight to the death.

Two thousand women, children and aged people carrying the barest necessities crossed the French frontier by omnibus and afoot at the order of the Mayor, who is apprehensive of a general bombardment. The refugees are utterly overcrowding Hendaye, where many sleep in the streets.

The defenders of Irun, forestalling the rebel attackers, opened a bombardment, to which the rebels replied with two ineffectual aeroplane bombing raids.

Two Belgian officers, including Colonel Roll, who helped Ras Nasibu in Abyssinia, arrived to aid the defence of Irun. Refugees are being vaccinated in Hendaye railway yard. The French are tightening military precautions 011 the frontier.

Reported Revolt of Legionaires. The Madrid correspondent of the "News Chronicle" says that members of the Foreign Legion, whom General Franco induced to go to Spain by promising them extra pay, free loot and grants of land, are rebelling against the insurgent generals on the Guadarrama front.

Some of the men crossed no-man's-land at Navalperal, on the Somo Sierra, and surrendered.

The officers overpowered 18 others, who were sent to Burgos and shot. Some again were disarmed and imprisoned. Deserters from Navalperal assert that before their embarkation the troops in three camps in Morocco rose against General Franco. Numbers were shot or imprisoned for refusing to take up arms against the Government.

The "Daily Telegraph" correspondent at St. Jean-de-Luz, on the FrancoSpanish frontier, says lie regards desertions, which have extended to the army attacking Irun, as significant. They are so frequent that the officers cannot trust the men. Some fear that if the war does not favour the insurgents thousands of privates in cities behind the lines may mutiny and join the Socialists and Communists.

'PLANES V. SHIPS

BAD LEADERSHIP IN SPAIN?

(Special.—By Air Mall.) LONDON, August 11. As the Spanish civil war progresses the naval situation becomes more interesting, writes Mr. Hector C. Bywater, "Daily Telegraph" naval correspondent. Hitherto the Government sea forces, which outnumber those of the insurgents by ten to one, appear to have operated without any definite plan, and their failure to wipe out the small anti-Government squadron is indicative of bad leadership.

So f&r, in spite of a lavish expenditure of ammunition by at least one 12in gun battleship, three ■ Gin gun cruisers, and several destroyers, only one insurgent man-of-war—the small and feeblyarmed gunboat Dato—has been accounted for.

All the 12 submarines of the navy appear to have remained loyal to the Government. Should even one or two of these boats desert to the insurgents the situation may undergo a dramatic change.

With hostile submarines at large, it would be extremely dangerous for battleships and cruisers to carry out the leisurely coastal bombardments in which they have indulged so frequently up to now. Anti-submarine training is probably in a backward state, while the Spanish submarine service is reported by competent British observers to be fairlv efficient.

The present struggle has not yet thrown any new light on the bomb versus ship problem. Government warships have been repeatedly bombed, occasionally from low altitudes, yet there is no authenticated instance of any ship having been seriously dsitiaged—let alone destroyed. % This is the more significant in view of the fact —reported to me on excellent authority—that a year or two ago the Spanish air force purthiised abroad a large quantity of aircraft bombs of a very efficient type, including armourpiercing bombs. New pattern bomb sights were also acquired.