FLIGHT ABROAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 80, 5 April 1939, Page 11

FLIGHT ABROAD.

Spanish Republicans Bound For England. FORCED TO SURRENDER. (Received 1.30 p.m.) LONDOX, April 4. One hundred and seventy-seven Republican leaders and their families, including Colonels Casado and Menendex, who arrived aboard a British hospital ship, left Marseilles for London to-day. Colonel Casado told interviewers that he took over control of Madrid believing that he could get better terms than the Communists. They had nothing to do but surrender when General Franco refused a parley, "Otherwise at least 300.000 more lives would have been lost." It is revealed that over 500 Republican leaders were trapped in Valencia, when Franco forces got control. A Burgos message says that immediate demilitarisation and demobilisation of private industry in Spain has been decreed in order to provide employment for soldiers and help the return to normal life. In accordance with the BerardJordana agreement the first Spanish ships moored at Gironde were handed over to General Franco. ITALIAN TROOPS. DEPASTURE FROM SPAIN. LOXDOX, April 4. It is unofficially reported from Paris that Italian troops throughout Spain are being concentrated at Almeria preparatory to embarkation for Italy. A British official wireless message says the declaration by the Spanish Government of the end of the civil war in Spain gave rise to a question in the House of Commons regarding the Italian troops in Spain. The Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr. R. A. Butler, replied: "As the House is aware, the Italian Government has given an undertaking to withdraw all Italian volunteers and war material on the termination of the Spanish civil war. I have no reason to suppose the Italian Government will not honour that undertaking."