DECIDING SPAIN’S DESTINY

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 September 1936, Page 7

DECIDING SPAIN’S DESTINY

STRUGGLE FOR IRUN. REBELS GAIN GROUND. (By Telegraph-Press Assn.-Copyright} LONDON, Sept. 2. The fighting on the Iran front was resumed, machine-guns and artillery exohanging bombardments. The rebels gained a strategic point on Uneha Hill and captured Mount Turiarte, the main bastion of the Iran defence, opening a way to the main road to San Sebastian. Hurricane fire developed when General Mola ordered a general bombardment, to which the defenders, aided by an armoured train, desperately replied. The loyalists’anally succeeded in repulsing the strongest rebel attack yet launched on the Iran front, inflicting heavy losses, but the rebels desperately counter-attacked later in the afternoon, ■engaging in hand-to-hand conflict loyalists in machine-gun nests on the outskirts of . the frontier village of Behobie.

The foremost rebels are now within a mile of Iran. The rebel junta at Burgos has decreed the inauguration of a foreign legion for the duration of hostilities and has opened recruiting depots at Burgos, Valladolid, Caceres and Seville. A Government Claim The Government claims a signal victory at Soto, 20 miles south-east of -Oviedo. . A message states that contact has been established between envoys from Madrid and Burgos with a view to discussing humanisation of warfare. Benor Castro, who represents the loyalists, hopes to arrange with General Mola for a discontinuance of the execution of hostages and prisoners.

. Spanish rebel aircraft dropped four bombs near the destroyer Worcester and also near a German destroyer off Malaga. The Worcester steamed to Gibraltar undamaged.

Fight to the End TALL REGARDED AS IMMINENT DESPERATE ATTACK. LONDON, Sept. 2. Heartened by to-day’s successes rebels to-night resumed their desperate .attack on the Irun front, and despite strenuous resistance they captured Port San Marcial, where the Cariist flag was hoisted. This is a most important point dominating Irun. Desperate street fighting is continuing in Behobie, causing grave danger on the French side of the river, where bullets are flying. Heavy Bombardment

The fall of Irun is regarded as imminent. The defenders express deter- j mination to fight to the last, and it is feared that the massacre which followed the fall of Badajoz will be-re-peated when Irun is captured. To-day’s attack was accompanied by the heaviest land and sea bombardment of the civil war. The defenders have threatened to shoot 25 hostages for every non-combatant who is killed.

The Government drams that strong rebel attacks at Guadarrama and Siguenza were beaten off, and that a 1000 rebels deserted to the Government.

Skirmishing continues on the Asturian front as the rebels try to rescue the besieged garrison at Oviedo. It is reported from Lisbon that an unofficial estimate of the killed is 34,000 Government troops and 46,000 rebels.

Irun Seems Doomed REFUGEES PROVE PROBLEM FOR FRANCE, Received Friday, 2 a.m. LONDON, Sept 3. A Hendaye message says that a drizzle hampered isolated night operations on the Irun front, but the Government successfully carried out a surprise attack at dawn under the cover of a ’bombardment from Fontarabia and dislodged the rebels from their position in the fields outside Behobia. Every house in Behobia is barricaded with sandbags and mattresses. Government artillery is ceaselessly shelling San Marcial to prevent any advance from this quarter. Important loyal reinforcements arrived from San Sebastian and Government 'planes are also impatiently awaited. Irun, however, seems doomed. The Government, is organising a house-t-i house defence, declaring, rather than surrender, they will destroy many of the principal buildings which are already mined. Hundreds of refugees streamed across the frontier all night, and if the exodus continues, Prance will be faced with a serious problem housing and feeding them. The Ministry of the Interior has already sent 125,000 francs to the mayors of frontier villages to help refugees. The Government can only claim minor successes against the setback at Irun. It has beaten off an insurgent attack -at Estremadura. A thousand soldiers reportedly deserted from rebels on the Guadarrama front. Government submarines arrived at Bilbao and San Sebastian from the Mediterranean,

ifuesca Surrounded CUT Received Friday, 2 a.xn. LONDON, Sept. 3. ’ Loyalists have completely surFbn®ded Huesca and all communica-

tions are cut, states u .Catalan Govern ment communique.

Germany Holds Up NonIntervention BRITAIN MAY HAVE TO CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES. Received Thursday, 11 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 3, Russia and Germany are now the only two nations which have not yet replied to the advisory committee proposal. No apprehension is felt in London regarding Russia’s attitude, says the Morning Post’s political correspondent, hut Germany is at present less certain. The Manchester Guardian’s political correspondent says the unique purpose of the committee is to avert an international crisis; if the committee is not established — and it cannot he established without Germany—tnen Britain is faced with the necessity of new and far-reaching decisions. The time indeed is fast approaching when the alternatives to non-intervention may have to he considered.

Advisory Body

PORTUGAL APPROVES OF ' ADVISORY BODY.

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. 3

The British Government lias received through the British Ambassador in Lisbon notification from the Portuguese Government of its acceptance in principle of the proposal for an advisory committee in London composed of rep resentatives of Powers pledged to nonintervention in the Spanish civil wai and with the function of acting jih a clearing house for facts and ideas in connection with application of the various- non-intervention declarations. The Portuguese accept: eis accompanied by a number of suggestions and requests for explanations which will receive consideration in London and Pans.

in the meantime, it is understood that the British Charge d’Affaires in Berlin was in touch with the German Government to-day on this matter, and there is growing hopefulness in British official quarters that an early reply may be expected from Berlin and that it will be favourable, to the scheme for a com. ittee, whirl’ , s increasingly regarded here as an essential safeguard of the non-interventionist position. Tokio Embassy REBEL FLAG HOISTED TOKIO, Sept. 2. The rebel flag is flying over the Spanisih Legation, the Minister announcing that he had severed relations with Madrid.