SAN SEBASTIAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 65, 14 September 1936, Page 9

SAN SEBASTIAN

UNOPPOSED ENTRY

SPORADIC SNIPING

MADRID UNABLE TO HELP

United Tress Association— By Klcctric Tele

graph—Copyright. (Received September 14, noon.) LONDON, September 13. General Mola's three main columns entered San Sebastian unopposed except for sporadic sniping. A small body of insurgents entered the town.at 9 a.m. unopposed. The British United Press agency says that General Ortega lied at I o'clock. The city is now entirely evacuated except for Basque nationalists, who are patrolling the streets. General Ortega is,establishing his headquarters in - the coastal town of Zumaya. Anarchists set fire to the paper mills and the Casino and threw incendiary bombs at houses. Scores of fires are burning Before retreating, the Government v forces cut the electric line connecting Bilbao with San Sebastian, and. took all the available rolling stock. COUNTERING ANARCHY. Anarchists fired six buildings in the industrial quarters. The Basques are fighting the anarchists to prevent further incendiarism. The rough element looted shops in the fashionable quarter. ; Thousands of refugees gathered on the quays at night waiting to be emmarked in yachts and other craft which the Government ■ troops commandeered, and men, mostly of fighting age, pushed women and children aside despite tearful pleadings. Before the evacuation a message to Madrid imploring help drew a reply from the capital that it was unable to assist and suggesting a surrender on terms. . ■ ' When rebel aeroplanes dropped ultimatum pamphlets the militia endeavoured to seize them all in the streets to prevent the population reading them. ,; The rebels are shelling Hernani, five miles from San Sebastian. Women. and children have been evacuated from Hernanil ' "SKIRMISH" AT TALAVERA. A North American Newspaper Alliance copyright message from Toulon says that General Franco's reported important battle for Madrid on the Talavera front is merely an outpost skirmish at his junction with General Mola's troops at Sierra de Gredos, and that he is only meeting mountain patrols. ■■.■.■ On paper, the rebels have aj quar T ter-circle against Madrid from the north to the west, but dispose only 20,000 men on a 100-mile front in hostile territory against vastly superior numbers. Time is working for the loyalists, who daily are adding a knowledge of warfare tactics to a fierce enthusiasm. A siege of Madrid from a military point of view seems impossible. '■'.' ' '.: v ' ■■" ' ' '...['' '■'. '.' '. ■ Typhoid is reported to be serious in the besieged town" of Oviedo. Refugees state that 72 persons died in one day. The shelling and bombing by the Government forces continue.