BRUTAL BOMBING OF LOYALIST REFUGEES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 24, 30 January 1939, Page 7

BRUTAL BOMBING OF LOYALIST REFUGEES.

HEAVY TOLL TAKEN.

Bodies Line Roads Beside Wrecked Vehicles. FIRST ESTIMATE EXCEEDED. Vti'— AfkoHiHloii.—Copyright. ( If-'- Ivp.l 1J noon.) LONDON", .January 2fl. Tlip "Dnily Tclnjrraph" Perpip;nan rorrespondi-nf smv.s that Anarchists ~nil Communis!* control Puigccrda, which is lull ol' starving refugees, 11,0 Lo\Hli-l miotic! commanding luivinsr £""«■ '" Krance. Mntori-t*. ii tier fin veiling from Miitwi" to lirroiiii, «nv that bodies lie ,iii the rond-idi" nil the way lieside wrecked riu'« mid trucks. Aeroplanes, by bonihinj: mid machine-gunning, have taken a terrible toll. The refugees' death mil I'm" exceeds the first estimate of a few hundred. It even eclipses the etuujjlitpr when refugees from Malaga fled to Motril. Appalling Scene in Barcelona. "The Times" llurcelona correspondent nays thill marching north from Barcelona tin- insurgenta pre«a the broken Loviili-i it mi io-* toward* France, occupying all between <iranollers and the coa*l iiiid securing immense bootv. Mc(li<'iil «enice* tend thousands of abandoned wounded. The military (iovernor-Oeneral of AremiH hroadi-ii.it (ieneral Franco's promise to respect Catalan aspirations, langiiHjri' mid customs if Spanish unity is not threatened. A decree incorporates Cut ii lon in in the Spain-wide State of war. Orent strides have been made towards normality in Barcelona. The occupation pa«eed off without incident, the troops maintaining magnificent discipline. A tour of the harbour reveal* appalling desolation from bombings and fires. Long files of Loyalist prisoner.* trudge uphill toward* Mount .Fuich fortress, pending separation of the innocent from the guilty.

One hundred former members of the International Jtrigiule and several thousand refugees were jammed in darknew in a railway tunnei at Cerbere for 4S hour* without food or water, awaiting permission to enter France. Massing on French Border. Between 12.000 and l/i.OOO refugees from Spain crossed into France vester(lay, and thousands more. mostly women, children and wounded soldier*, are maiming on the frontier stretch between La Junquera and Le Perthus. Two columns of retreating Loyalist troop*, each of (1000 men, are approaching Pruts de Mollo. A thousand refugees, including 200 militiamen, whom the French authorities disarmed, entrained from Lc Perthus for the interior of France. In accordance with the French Government s orders, all Spaniards of military Mge, not only troops, who have crossed the frontier, are being sent back to Spain if unwounded. Some who were J ke " trai "« resisted, compelling the Mobile Guards to use force. The "Daily Telegraph" Perpignan representative says that thousands of refugee camp fires twinkle on the hillsides to-night. Food wag distributed to the refugees. A powerful revolving beacon flashingover Le perthus is a guide to the refugees und a warning to aviators not to bomb north thereof. The refugee situation is gradually becoming controllable. A Li-mile safety corridor is being organiMed. subject to General Franco's goodwill. Six thousand French troops are at Perpignan, Montpelier and Cnrcasonne, ready to reinforce the frontier police. Others are moving up from inland trarri»ong. T police suppressed pro"Oywiat demonstrations in Paris. ARMS FOR LOYALISTS. appeal to democracies. (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, January 29. The British United Press Paris correspondent says the Labour Confederals" . .■PP e * le<l to Mr. Chamberlain, president Roosevelt and M. Daladier for Britain, AmerW and France to take Loyalist Spain to - defend herself.