BRUTAL MURDER

Evening Post, Issue 12, 14 July 1936, Page 9

BRUTAL MURDER

FORMER MINISTER

ARREST BY STORM GUARDS

(Received July 14, noon.)

MADRID, July 13. ' A blood feud between Socialists and Fascists which has resulted in the death of a score of persons in the past week culminated in the brutal murder of the former Minister of Finance, Senor Calve Sotelo, a Monarchist leader. Members of his family state that a group of uniformed men led by a lieutenant of the Storm.Guards, a special branch of police, drove up in a motorbus and said that they were authorised to arrest Senor Sotelo, who vainly protested his Parliamentary immunity but was bundled into a bus. His familytelephoned to police headquarters asking the reason for his arrest and received a reply that no arrest was authorised. Consequently the opinion was expressed that Senor Sotelo had been kidnapped, but the body, was eventually found in a cemetery. . It appears that Senor Sotelo was murdered in the bus, which was then driven:to the cemetery. ■' ••'

Officials at the cemetery say that armed uniformed men said they wanted to deposit' the body of a dead watchman.

It is supposed that the Storm Guards were incensed by the Fascists' murder of a comrade.

BUS OCCUPANTS ARRESTED,

Senor Sotelo had been knifed and shot in the face, making identification, difficult. The bus was found parked before the police barracks. The driver and five Storm Guards were arrested; also the staff of the cemetery for receiving the body without the usual documents.

Senor Sotelo served under the de Rivera dictatorship, and was exiled after the fall of the Monarchy, but later received an amnesty. He opposed the Leftists and had been regarded as a possible leader if the Rightist's regained power.

It is believed that the murder was a reprisal for the murder on the previous night of Lieutenant Jose de Castillo, a Storm Guard and an ardent Socialist, who was shot dead by four Fascists as he was leaving his home. De Castillo in turn had been accused of the murder of Senor Heredia during the funeral of a murdered Civil Guard.

It is widely reported that the Storm Guards who killed Senor Sotelo also visited the homes of Senor Gil Robles and another Monarchist, but both fortunately were out of town.

Cabinet sat all day to consider the unsettled situation, and ordered, a judicial inquiry into the murder of; Senor Sotelo.

N Police were busy at the weekend rounding up Fascists and seizing arms.

A hundreds thousand strikers in the building trades refuse to, return .to work on the terms approved by thft Government. * ■ ■ ■