FRANCO’S REPRISALS

Grey River Argus, 21 September 1939, Page 10

FRANCO’S REPRISALS

As the result of General Franco’s laws of reprisal against the people of Spain, the entire structure of democracy in that country, built up since the birth of the Republic in 1931, has been destroyed. Reprisals are being exacted against everyone who opposed the “National Movement," either by actions against it or by passivity. All trade unions and democratic parties have been outlawed and anyone having any connection with them or with the Popular Front Government will be tried under Franco’s new laws.

Those who left Republican Spain after the beginning of the war and who failed to return within three months automatically become criminals, according to the law. I n other words, not a single person in the whole Republican area, with the exception of Fascist elements, will be safe from reprisals. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of arrests have been made in the former Republican cities and towns, and tribunals are daily sending arrested victims to their deaths. The Franco measures of revenge appear to be particularly vicious in the Basque, Asturian, and Catalan. provinces.— “Evening Star," Dunedin.