CULT OF ASSASSINATION

Cromwell Argus, Volume L, Issue 2646, 27 October 1919, Page 3

CULT OF ASSASSINATION

BARCELONA'S DAILY MURDKR. The Madrid correspondent of ‘ The Times' telegraphed on July 27: The* struggle that is going on in Barcelona. hidden beneath the cloak that martial law and the gaj’ insouciance of the Catalans themselves throw over the city, is taking an increasingly violent form. Where, one murder a week used to be the average,, there is now one crime to register almost every day. Several of the latest victims have been workmen, and the Syndicalists accuse the owners of organising assassination, though, in view of what has been taking place during the past year, counter-assassina-tion would he the better word. A leaflet profusely distributed in Spain, signed by the committee of the local federation of Syndicated Workmen of Barcelona. gives the following version of the manner in which Pablo Sabater, a workman dye), is alleged to hare met his death. Sabater was wakened in the middle of the night at Ids house by several men. who stated that they were policemen. and who asked him to follow them. He asked for the night watchman to b« summoned, which was refused. Handeulfcd and with a leading rope secured to his waist. Sabater was conducted to a waiting motor car. The following morning his body was found, pierced with gunshot and knife wounds, lying in the ditch by the roadside near Moncayo. Many thousand workmen left mills and workshops to attend Sabater's fimeial last Wednesday. The authorities forbade the procession t j enter the Gran Via. The workmen insisted. seized and shouldered the coffin. Tin* police intervened, and the coffin fell to the ground, where the police mounted guard over it until the authorities consented to allow the procession to proceed. The police have also been, and have made, victims. An anarchist named Klia? Garcia shot a' policeman who attempted to arrest him, and escaped. A few days later the police killed a workman in his bed, mistaking him for a criminal they were looking for. As each week passes feeling in_ Barcelona becomes more bitter. Recalling the mvsterious bomb outrages of a few years ago. Catalan Home Rulers now murmur that these crimes are instigated by the enemies of Catalonia, who wish to discredit her in the eyes of the r*st of Spain.