LOYALIST FORCES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 82, 7 April 1938, Page 9

LOYALIST FORCES

HASTY PREPARATIONS

CABINET RESHUFFLE

WORKERS TO RESIST TILL

THE END

United Press Association—By Electric Telt"

graph—Copyright. (Received April 7, 11 a.m.)

BARCELONA, April 6. The Republicans are preparing for a last stand in the mountains between the provinces of Lerida and Barcelona. Defences are being hastily built outside Lerida with the aid of volunteers and prison labour.

At the most advanced points in the provinces of Castellon and Tarragona the insurgents are only a day's march from the sea.

Further east, along a front of 100 miles in Aragon, insurgents advancing from Lerida have reached a point 15 miles north-east of Lerida and 25 miles from the vital reservoir which supplies water power for Barcelona's industries.

As a result of a Cabinet reshuffle, the Premier, Senor Negrin, has assumeH almost dictatorial powers. He retains the Premiership and has taken over the defence portfolio.

Twp workers' syndicates with a membership of five million represented to the Government that they have pledged themselves to support the Republican Front. Senor Prieto, who fell foul of the Labour element of Senor Negrin, has withdrawn from political office.

The Cabinet reshuffle means that the workers are determined to resist to the end. It also means a victory for Senor Negrin's policy of coopting Communists.