REBEL SUCCESS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 300, 15 September 1936, Page 9

REBEL SUCCESS

Three Columns Enter San Sebastian MANY FIRES BURNING Incendiary Bombs Thrown By Anarchists ■ i ‘Bv TelesrapU—Ptes» Assn.—Copyright. (Received September 15, 12.48 a.m.) London, September 13. General Mola’s three main columns entered San Sebastian unopposed ex ; cept for sporadic sniping. General Ortega, who commanded the loyalists at San Sebastian, is establishing his headquarters in the coastal town of Zumaya. Anarchists set fire to the paper mills and the casino and threw ineen diary bombs at houses. Scores of fires are burning. Before retreating, the Government forces cut the electric line connecting Bilbao with San Sebastian, and took all the available rolling stock* The Chilian Ambassador, Senor Morgado, after an interview with Government headquarters at Toledo, obtained an undertaking that women and children would be permitted to leave the besieged Alcazar and take refuge in convents under the Chilian flag. This is being communicated to the commander of the garrison to which a priest was admitted on Sunday to administer communion and baptize two new-born babies, w'hose mothers are famished. The recent transfer of the Portuguese Embassy to Alicante from Madrid, it is revealed, was due to an invasion of the office by Government militia, who demanded the Ambassador to hand over documents. When he refused the militia forced a way in to his. offices and set them on fire. A Spanish employee at the Embassy was arrested, and, it is understood, shot. NON-INTERVENTION PACT (British Official Wireless.) (Received September 14, 5.5 p.m.) Rugby, September 14. Information is still being received from various non-interventionist Governments recording measures taken by them to give effect to the agreement to withhold war supplies from Spain and it is hoped that a complete record of these steps will be available for presentation at the meeting in London, on Monday afternoon, bf the international committee for the application of the agreement. LA PASSIONARIA Spanish Woman Communist Leader La Passionaria, the Spanish ivuman ' Communist leader, who recently went to Paris to plead for help for the Spanish loyalists, is, according to the “New York Times" correspondent, playing a major role in the War Ministry at Madrid. She is regarded as a messiah by the workers, whom she has championed since her entry into politics 10 years ago. Not heslt-ating .to shoulder and shoot a gun herself. La Passionaria, says the correspondent, has been setting the example for Spain’s labouring Women, who have in large numbers joined the republican armed/forces. . The real name of La Passionaria, who is an implacable revolutionist and

a Communist Deputy in the Cortes from a miners’ district in Biscaya, is ■ Dolores Ibarreri. She was renamed ‘.‘Passion Flower” by the masses to symbolise her beauty, oratory and passion

for justice. Forty-one years old, La Passionaria is no haggard-looking female of the French Revolution type. Even among per enemies she is noted as a darkeyed, jet-haired Spanish beauty. Her first ambition, to become a school teacher, was thwarted by lack of adequate, means, and she finished her education with a self-planned curriculum of Marx, Engels and Lenin. A laundress in a small mining town, she soon came to sympathise with the miners’ plight and took a fighting part in all strikes. During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera she and her husband, the Communist Mayor of Somorrostro, spent most of the time in prison. After the Socialist revolution in February, 1934, their home in Asturias was completely destroyed and they went to Russia. Known to the Soviet as Dolores, La Passionaria was named last year to the executive committee of the seventh congress of the Third International, at one of whose meetings she presided. As an example of her bravery her followers like to cite her behaviour in freeing prisoners from a jail after the general amnesty last February. The Civil Guards and the Assault Guards were still faithful to the principles of the previous reactionary Government .and would not allow the prisoners to join their families and friends eagerly waiting outside the walls. Having succeeded in opening the iron gates, the imprisoned men were held in only by the guns of the guards, who threatened to shoot any one making a break. After a vain attempt to get the co--o[>eratlon of the local governor, La Passionaria suddenly climbed the iron gtillwork of the prison gate, defying the guards to shoot through at her, and exhorted the prisoners to escape, which they did. Observers on the French border, including Spanish refugees, who know La Passionaria well, say that she is not interested in Communism just now and is fighting wholeheartedly for the re public against Fascism. If the Government forces win, however, it is hard to see how any new Cabinet could be formed without her approval and cooperation.