NEW POLICY IN SPAIN

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21714, 22 February 1936, Page 15

NEW POLICY IN SPAIN

Constitution To Be Restored STRICT ADHERENCE TO LEAGUE COVENANT (UNITED PKBB3 ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) (Received February 21, 8.47 p.m.) LONDON, February 20. The Madrid correspondent of the "Daily Herald" obtained an interview with Senor Manuel Azana, who gave an assurance that "there would be no persecution. The Government's first acts, will be to restore hundreds of local councils which were dissolved after the 1934 fighting, to proclaim a full amnesty for political offences, and to re-establish the social legislation which was so grievously tampered with. The next task will be the restoration of the full Republican Constitution. The Government will then help agriculturists and resume the building of schools, since Senor Azana regards education as most important. The foreign policy will be strictly based on the League Covenant. It is reported from Madrid that while Senor Azana and his colleagues are drawing up the amnesty formulae, reports are arriving from many parts of attacks on gaols, the wrecking of local headquarters of the Right Wing, and the burning of churches. A procession of 20,000 people went to the Corunna gaol. The guards allowed a deputation to take 17 prisoners, who were, carried shoulder \high to the City Hall, where the demonstration dissolved peacefully. A crowd at Gijon freed the inmates of two prisons. Demonstrators at Alicante came into collision with the police, who fired, two persons being killed and two wounded. After this, martial law was reimposed. Prisoners in the reformatory mutinied and set fire to the buildings, which were surrounded by troops. Don Emilio Inglesias, former Ambassador to Brazil, was arrested on a charge of attempting to falsify election returns at Lalin. The crowd yelled, "We want Inglei sias's head." , Extremists set fire to the office of the Catholic newspaper, burned the ! Catholic convent to the ground, and sacked the headquarters of the Popular Action Party. Demonstrators at Murcia wrecked the printing presses of ,the Catholic newspaper "Truth" and set fire to the building. A mob, several hundred strong, stormed Oviedo gaol early this morning. After sweeping the

police and the guards aside the mpb opened the cells and released all ■the prisoners in custody, numbering nearly 1000. The joined their rescuers "in a "triumphal march through the city.