STRICKEN MALAGA

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 13094, 16 February 1937, Page 5

STRICKEN MALAGA

Damage Estimated at £20,000,000 Tenth of City Gutted Forty-four Air Raids Deaths Daily From Smallpox 80,000 People Reported Killed by Communists

(U.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright). LONDON, Feb. 14. A Gibraltar message says that, granted permission by the military authorities, a correspondent visited Malaga and found a tenth of the city destroyed and gutted. Tim total damage is estimated at £20,000,000. There are no hotels, restaurants, cinemas, shops, churches or convents left.

Only the walls remain of the famous cathedral. Tim altar images are gone. Inhabitants in the precincts said over 1000 people had been living in the en thedral for six months with donkeys, goats and dogs. Dozens of cases of smallpox have been reported, and deaths occur daily.

An English resident said that Malaga. suffered 44 air raids. The biggest was on January 2, when 10 aeroplanes dropped 40 bombs in the heart of the city, setting fire to many buildings. Tiie worst shelling was on January 11 by tlie cruiser Canarias, when 100 shells exploded, wrecking buildings. The Paris journal Petit Parisian says that the reported landing of Italian troops at Malaga is causing anxiety to the British and French Governments. “Pertinax,” writing in the Echo de Paris, says that.intervention will continue to be hypocritically indirect and then will turn into open intervention.

A message from Valencia says that the Spanish Minister, Senor del Vayo, broadcasting throughout Spain, said that Italy and Germany had been sabotaging the work of the nonintervention committed. He described Malaga as a Mediterranean port being placed in the service of the Duce by subalterns under orders from Berlin.

A Malaga rdport slates that- the rebel authorities to-day sentenced to death 30 so-called Communist bandits

and sentenced five to liie imprisonment and two to terms of 20 years. A Seville* radio message asserts that Communists killed 80,000 people in Malaga after the outbreak of hostilities and that many women, children and old people died of hunger.

The British vice-consul lias returned aboard the Basilisk.

BATTLE FOlt MADRID. AIR RAIDS NUMEROUS. WOMEN ORDERED TO LEAVE FRONT LINES. (U.P.A. by Elec. Teh Copyright). LONDON, Feb. 14. Messages from Madrid state that air battles are numerous. Seven rebel planes have been shot down in tv o days. The seeut« of to-day s fiercest fighting was in the vicinity of Arganda, 10 miles to the south-east of Madrid, where the loyalists successfully bombed and bombarded advancing rebel tanks and retained their position. (Giving evidence at a mass trial in Madrid of 84- prisoners charged with rebellion, Cerro Rojo revealed that two battalions of the Spanish Foreign Legion, consisting entirely of Irishmen are at present at Pinto to tlid south of Jaraina battlefield. The loyalist authorities, while complimenting them for their courage, have ordered the retirement of all women combatants from the Madrid front lines.

UNKNOWN VESSEL BOMBARDS VALENCIA. FOURTEEN KILLED AND THIRTY INJURED. (U.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright). (Received Feb. 15, 5.5 p.m.) VALENCIA, Feb. IS. An unknown vessel bombarded \ alencia at 10 p.m. on Sunday. Approximated thirty shells passed over the centre of the city, falling m outlying parts. The Government gunbeat Lava replied, driving off the attacker. It is reported that fourteen were killed and thirty injured.

A MAZE OF TRENCHES WEST PARK TO-DAY vU.P A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright.). (Received Feb- 15, 10.5 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 15. West Park, where normally nursemaids and children played and couples courted, is a* maze of tienc'ies, with trees torn by grenades and rifle-fire. The Government’s- fortifications were so complete that, when the rebels burst into University City, they did not know the whereabouts of the enemy’s positions which were concealed in a labyrinth oif. tunnels which, were still lit by electricity.

Tire rebels still occupy the cellars and first floor of the battered eightstorey shell of one of the most modern hospitals in Europe, which they stormed a week ago, They do nob venture into the upper storeys before nightfall. The adjacent cancer institute is a mass of ruins, and “No Man’s Land” beyond a barrier of sandbags, is dotted with rebel corpses, the' victims of the last attack.

MILITARY PURGE URGED

<U.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright!. (Received Feb. 10, 1 a.m.) VALENCIA, Feb. 15. An unknown warship shelled the city for five minutes during the night and fourteen were killed, whereof s.iv were ‘children, whilst thirty were injured. Eighty thousand participated in a demonstration and formed a deputation to Senor Caballero at the Premier’s Palace urging a purge of the military leadership, the institution of a. single command, the creation of a strong War Ministry under Government conrtol, compulsory military service Mr all able, bodied men and the intensification of the work of fortifications. Senor Caballero promised to consider all the points.

RETREAT FROM MALAGA FLEEING WOMEN AND CHILDREN BOMB. HUNDREDS KILLED <U.P.A. by Elec Tel. Copyright). (Received Feb. 15. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 15. The Times Valencia correspondent states that during the retreat from Malaga to Almeria, rebel planes swooped down upon 40,000 heavilyladen men. women and children fleeing from the Fascist terror, and ma-chine-gunned them, killing hundreds. The slaughter was intensified by the fire of rebel warships sailing parallel with the coast. Senor Del vayo obtained these facts from three Ministers who have returned from. Almeria. The Daily Telegraph’s Paris correspondent says that- diplomatic writers support statements that Signor Mussolini and General Goering agreed that Germany should reduce assistance to the Spanish rebels, allowing Italy to sccme them victory,, in recognition o: Italy giving Germany a free hand in Czeeho-S-lovakia and predominance in, the Danube Valley, in response to which Germany will grant Italy pr'erity in Spain and the Western Mediterranean.