CATALAN REVOLT FAILS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21290, 9 October 1934, Page 11

CATALAN REVOLT FAILS

Alfonso Ready To Return j MADRID LIKE A CITY OF THE DEAD TELBOKAI-tt (Received October 8, 5.5 p.m.) MADRID, October 7. Simultaneously with" the surrender of Scnor Luis Companys came news that elsewhere Government troops were getting the upper hand. Barcelona is now completely quiet, and the attempts to form an independent Catalan Republic have definitely failed. Senor Alejandro Lerroux. the Premier, narrowly escaped death during the firing at Madrid. Two bullets whistled over his head while he was making a speech in the council chamber. The Premier continued, unperturbed. It is reported from Rome that former King Alfonso has cancelled his engagements and is in readiness to return to Spain. His private secretary states that he will return only if Spaniards invite him to save their counU'y from ruin.

The revised estimate of the tolaJ casualties is 300 killed and 700 wounded. The indiscriminate nature of the street shooting is indicated by the presence on adjacent slabs in the mortuary of the bodies of a policeman and a little girl. When Senor Companys proclaimed the Catalan Republic he invited General Batet, on whose sympathies he relied, to join the new state. General Batet promised a reply within an hour. It was given by his troops marching from their barracks and taking possession of the public square and principal buildings and the proclamation of a state of war. After Senor Companys had made his despairing wireless appeal to the peasantry to arm and aid him, General Batet bombed the aerials, capured the police headquarters, where a section of the rebels was holding out, and secured the surrender of the leaders of the revolt with cannon shot. As military dictator he then sent troops to quench the last embers of the revolt at Gerona.

Senor Companys, though wounded, bore himself with proud indifference, as, with his ministers and the mayor and councillors, he was marched out. Members of his general staff were also under arrest. Fifty wounded were removed to hospitals, among them the rebel leader, Eadia. When the rebels first gained possession of the palace and the loval troops were being marched out, the cantain of the rebels "shock'' troops ordered them to withhold their fire. His first lieutenant promptlv countermanded this. The captain drew his revolver and shot the lieutenant dead. Street Like Battlefield The palace suffered severely from 'he bombardment. Several buildings were demolished and the railway lines torn up by the rebels. Government troops repulsed a rebel attack on the naval barracks. Twenty were killed and 70 wounded. The principal street resembles a battlefield. Barcelona is under complete military control and is cut off from the remainder of Catalonia and Madrid, which, like the rest of Spain, is still under martial law. Schools are temporarily closed throughout Spain. The curfew sounds at 9 p.m. All pedestrians passing President Zamora's residence do so with soldiers' revolvers pressed into their fibs.

Shots ignited a petrol tank at Barcelona and caused an extensive fire. Government troops suppressed risings at Gerona, where five were killed. Three soldiers and eight rebels were killed and many wounded at .San Sebastian. Firing broke out again this evening at the Atochna quarter, spreading quickly to several other suburbs. Three persons were killed. Rebels fired on trains and Government troops repelled an attack on Penuelas station. The Government has ordered municipal employees to resume work to-morrow and street lighters to-night. Factories have been instructed to reopen to-morrow, but to-night the capital resembles a city of the dead. In spite of the sporadic fighting Senor Lerroux declares that Catalonia and Asturias are definitely under control. The Mayor of Tarazona was wounded while addressing insurgents from the town hall balcony. Socialist leaders at Bilbao have been arrested. Severe fighting at San Sebastian resulted in 12 men being wounded. Waterside warehouses were burned down. Armed Forces Loyal The Lerroux Government's triumph is apparently due to the loyalty of the bulk of the armed forces, but the strike continues and the revolt is still smouldering. Rebels are doing their utmost to prolong the strike and anarchists threaten a continuation of the reign of terror to undermine the Government. It is understood that a court-mar-tial is no-' - sitting in a steamer in the Barcelona harbour to deal summarily on charges of high treason with Senor Companys and other provisional Catalan Ministers. The Government is losing no time in consolidating its position at Madrid and Barcelona and the province of Asturias. Troops and police have been instructed mercilessly to crush the slightest recurrence of the "revolt. Left wing forces are not unamimous in opposing the Government. The situation in Madrid to-night was still serious. There were freouent outbreaks of guerrilla fighting.