CROWDED SQUARE BECOMES A SHAMBLES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 7

CROWDED SQUARE BECOMES A SHAMBLES.

REBEL AIR RAID.

Women and Children Perish I In Spain. j BOMB FALLS ON A SCHOOL. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 12.30 p.m.) BARCELONA, May 31. There were at least 100 casualties when rebel bombs were dropped on the crowded market square of Granollers, 20 miles from Barcelona, where extensive damage was done. All the ghastliness of Guernica was reproduced in this town with a single main street, in which 30 houses were wrecked, and which was choked with debris from which troops and workmen are digging out bodies. The first bomb dug a huge hole in the busy market square and created a shambles among the queues of customers, while another split a three-storey store from top to bottom. | The raiders, after inflicting the maximum possible damage, macliine-gunned j the fleeing citizens and then sped to ! Majorca with 33 Loyalist 'planes in inI effectual pursuit. The death roll included many children who were killed when a bomb struck a school. Another message states that the entire ambulance resources were rushed to the town from Barcelona, to tend to the iiOO casualties, most of whom were women and children. Five rebel 'planes dropped 40 bombs, one exploding in a food queue. The town was crowded with refugees at the time. ANOTHER SHIP SUNK. British Vessel in Valencia Harbour. SERIOUS VIEW IN COMMONS. British Official Wireless. (Received 12.30 p.m.) VALENCIA, May 31. Insurgent 'planes bombed and sank the British ship Penthames, the cook on which was severely injured in an air raid yesterday. The vessel was being repaired when sunk, and members of the crew were saved. A British official wireless message from Rugby states that, replying in the House of Commons to a question about the bombing of the British steamer Thorpehall, which was sunk off Valencia, the Foreign Under-Secretary, Mr. R. A. Butler, said that from reports he had received he understood the Thorpehall had been attacked by an which dropped two bombs. One struck the vessel, which sank half an hour later.

From the fact that the ship was lying well away from the harbour and had been reconnoitred by a similar aeroplane on the previous evening, the British Government considered she had been the "victim of a deliberate atack.

The British agent, Sir Robert Hodgson, had been instructed to bring the incident to the notice of the Burgos authorities and to request that strong disciplinary action should be taken against the crew of the offending aircraft. Sir Robert Hodgson had further been instructed to impress upon the Burgos authorities the serious view taken by Britain of the repetition of deliberate attacks on British shipping, and to request that immediate instructions should be given that such attacks should cease.

Britain had reserved the right toclaim full compensation for loss or damage to persons and property resulting fronf this attack.