RIOTING CONTINUES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 149, 19 March 1936, Page 9

RIOTING CONTINUES

Several Lynchings In Spain BURNING OF CHURCHES (Received March 18, 8.55 p.m.) Madrid, March 17. The most savage rioting since the elections occurred at Jumilla, where five Fascists who were imprisoned for killing a Republican were liberated. The crowd protested to the Mayor, who ordered the Fascists to be rearrested. The mob attacked police wj(o were escorting two of ~the ■ rearrested, men, Antonio Martinez and Pedor Cuchillb, lynched and beheaded Martinez, and lynched Cuchillo. They triumphantly paraded bearing Martinez’s head to the house of a Conservative leader, who fired, wounding a Republican. The crowd promptly lynched the Conservative and attempted to set tire to the police barracks, whence the police fired a volley and drove them off, wounding two.

Another man has died of wounds inflicted by Fascists in the original riot.

The crowd killed a wealthy pastoralist, Francisco Praede, at Baena. The Bishop’s palace at Cadiz was set on fire and the Bishop fled to Gibraltar.

The province of Murcia was the scene of violent rioting, Socialists and Communists burning all the seven churches in Yecla, and several houses and shops. The mob caused/ damage in Albacete to the extent of £50,000, set fire to the Casino and Gallego Club, and wrecked shops, while the firemen stood helplessly by.

The cathedral, also the churches of San Josef and San Juan, were burnt to the ground. One person was killed and 10 injured. Stevedores struck at Gijon, as did builders in Oviedo and ironworkers at Babalona. Employees of a Madrid suburban tramway company seized rolling stock and stations and worked the line under a self-appointed committee. One hundred Seville miners seized a bankrupt mine and began working it on their own account. The xVgrarian Reform Department is hastily distributing land and promises 50,000 holdings shortly, but impatient peasants are invading property on their own initiative. Senor Gil Robles, leader of the Catholic Action Party, and Senor Azana, the Premier, are conferring with Senor Salvador, Minister of the Interior, in the hope of suppressing the disturbances.

Fifty-one have been killed and 19 wounded in recent rioting.