SPANISH CIVIL WAR

Kaikoura Star, Volume LVI, Issue 91, 19 November 1936, Page 4

SPANISH CIVIL WAR

“WAR FAR FROM ENDED” LONDON, November 15. The rebels carried out three air raid on Madrid on Sunday, killing 17 am wounding 120. The scene of the great est carnage was Gloria de Atoc.h square, where eight roads meet, out side the Mediocia railway statior which is the terminal of the railway to the southern coast. For this reasoi it is strategically important from th point of view of the capital’s foot supplies. Bombers attacked again in the after noon, devastating Glori eta de Cuatn Caminos square. Here, men, women and children who were enjoying thsunshine were plunged into a panic in the explosions of the bombs. Foui'toei loyalist lighting aeroplanes, arrivin’ too late to intercept them, drove of the raiders. The militia frustrated tw attempts by Moors and anks to ente the north-west quarter of .Madrid, bu the insurgents checked the loyalists attempt to improve their positions in mediately to the westward of Segovis Toledo, and Princesa bridges. The bodies of three Englishmen wer found among the dead at Casa d Campo after a fierce night fight. Ont boro a passport with the name, “S

K. Yates.” The others had no papers. Two hundred. Government troops attacked insurgents outposts after climbing a high way of the park. The , attackers were practically wiped out. The insurgents also suffered losses. The Spanish Prime Minister (Senor Caballero), interviewed at Valencia upon his return from Madrid, declared: “The war is far from ended, even in the apocryphal event of Madrid falling. Only now have the loyalists acquired means for the successful prosecution of hostilities, which, irrespective of any intervention, Italian or otherwise, will he continued until victory is attained, not only throughout Spain, hut. in the Balearic Islands and in Morocco. ” The British Ambassador at Hendaye (Sir Henry Chilton) has learned from Burgos that the joint British-American hospital has been included in the surety zone, and that the commander of the northern insurgent army has been so informed.

A CONFERENCE IN BERLIN REPORT OF SOVIET HELP FOR LOYALISTS BERLIN, November 15. Herr Hitler unexpectedly conferred with General von Blomberg - , Admiral von Raeder, and other military and naval officers. It is believed that this conference was held about the Spanish war and the allegation that a Soviet ship went to Barcelona with tanks, personnel, and war material. STOPPING OF RUSSIAN 'SHIP INVESTIGATION TO BE MA DC MOSCOW, November 15. The Tass Agency has issued a statement in reference to the report that the rebel cruiser Almirante Cervera stopped a Russian ship laden with ammunition in the Straits of Gibraltar ami ordered her to Ceuta. It is stated that the ship was the Soyuz Vodnikov, an oil tanker from Batum with 10,00(1 tons of petrol and oil destined from Germany. The tanker, before passing Gibraltar, was instructed to land the oil at Erthveldc, in Belgium, where there are storehouses from which oil is taken to Germany on barges up the Rhine. The owners weie surprised to receive a telegram from the captain when the vessel The Tass Agency comments: “This is not the first time the Spanish Fascists have indulged in an insolent piratical action.” Tho circumstances under which the Soyuz Vodnikov arrived at Ceuta are 1 being investigated. IF THE REBELS WIN ()UTLOOK UNCERTAIN i If the Spanish “Nationalists,” as I they call themselves, achieve final victory they are likely to take some time over it; the Madrid Government has large numbers of men who are determined to fight to the last. Assuming ultimate victory for the forces of General Franco and Mola at Madrid and a subsequent collapse of the 1 regions east of the capital, a return I to monarchy seems assured, wrote a correspondent from Hendayc to the Manchester Guardian recently. ’ The three generals at the head of the “Nationalist” movement are in L agreement that the only possible form I of government to follow their victory • wlil be a military dictatorship to last not months but years. Franco has said , so in public and with still more enipha- , sis in private. But tho dictatorship will come into conflict with youthful forces which have fought and continue to fight with gallantry on every front ' These are (1) the Carlist “Requetes,’ 200,000 militants inured to fighting and REPORTED CAPTURE OF CITY BRIDGES LONDON, November 10. General Franco has apparently launched a full offensive on Madrid, Tho attack was preceded by a crashing roar of destruction as rebel aeroplanes (lew over the city dropping bombs. The correspondent of the Daily Tele- , graph with the rebels says that aftei . shattering the defences of the Manzanares river with 15 bombing aero- ■ planes, protected by 18 scout planes the insurgents captured and crossed the Segovia, Toledo, and Princesa bridges ’ and began to fight their way through the streets against tho fiercest resistance, but they made only 200 yards- ' headway. The loyalists fought from house to house and both sides suffered terribly. contemptuous of death, many of whom ' have had no opportunity yet to beai arms in the present struggle—those foi instance of Castellon de la Plana, a city in the Government’s hands; (2) the “ Falangistas, ” or Fascists, whe seem at present to be the most numerous in all Spain; and (3) the elements of “Renovacion Espanola,” openly monarchical, who are of less numercial strength. The “hymn” of the Falan gists is stronger and finer than those of the. Fascists and Nazis; it is sung in tho streets of all the cities con quered by the “nationalists,” and their soldiers of the regular army and the Foreign Legion seem to have adopted it as their war-song. General Franco General Franco is a clear-headed strategist and organiser, a disciplinarian, and a man famed for his bravery'. He is out to discipline Spain by exterminating the Marxist, anarchist, and Left Republican elements. Marshal Lyaute.v used to say that Spain had only one man in Morocco. Francisco Franco. Beneath his mellow, gentle, adipose exterior General Franco has an iron firmness. He subordinates everything else_to discipline. He is ' the recognised leader of the insurgent ' military, but he has no ambition for power or command. In the event of victory’ he will not follow Mussolini and Hitler in exacting idolatrous woi- > ship from the countrymen. He will keep in the background, while preserving an iron national unity' ami dis- ' cipline; and the military directory, pre sided over by a figurehead of the typo of General Cabanellas, the only old man

in the movement (he is seventy), will be Franco’s creature and representa tive. The only figure who could compete with Franco is General Mola, like him a man of intelligence, calm and cautious. Queipo de Llano has rendered inestimable service to Franco’s cause, dominating Andalusia, where Syndicalism was particularly strong, but he will not have the same prominence. Growth of racism Intimate friends of General Franco say that he is fully aware of the dangers of Falangism. The Falangist movement is of the Left in the matter of social legislation* desiring to create a Catholic, totalitarian, Syndicalist State. Recently, in passing from Corunna through Leon to Burgos, I realised the turbulence and pushfulness of the Falangists. Everywhere they are making their own demands for a more equal itarian social justice, and in their ranks there are many old Syndicalists; other Syndicalists are supporting their movement.

Falangism is growing among the monarchists and the elements of the Right. The civil war is being fought by the, Carlist 4 * Requotes, ’ ’ the Foreign Legion, and the regular army throughout the north and in Castile: T was told that the Falangists are less numerous at the front than in the cities. But I could sec for myself that “Falange I'.spanola, ’ ’ or Fascism, is setting the lone and the pace of political life in the towns dominated by the military, if they should win in th** end Falangism would be the strongest forcd in the new State. It is an explosive force which can certainly be little to il liking of General Franco. Franco’s monarchist sympathies are well known, so much so that the Falangists are subordinating the question of the future form of government to the points in their programme which have reference to the problem of the socialisation of property, the distribution of wealth, and the creation of an Imperial State. Return to Monarchy? What sympathies, if any, Franco may have for any of the national forces that are supporting him—Carlism, Fa langism, and the Renovacion Espanola --it would be difficult to say. Tn all probability he hopes to restore the

monarchical rule, and would resort to a national plebiscite to that end, in the conviction that the strong divergencies of view which will come to the fore when victory has been won could only be reconciled under an impartial and neutral monarchical regime standing aloof from political controIf Franco triumphs those will be the three strong points in Spain. Falange Espanola is indifferent to the question of the form of government, though inclined to favour the monarchical form, since it has no “leader” as in Italy and Germany. Carlism aspired to elevate to the throne of Spain old Don Carlos de Borbon-Este, who has just died. Renovacion Espanola is in favour of the return of Alfonso himself. Generals Cabanellas, Mola, and Queipo de Llano are old republicans and have never shown excessive loyalty to the monarchical idea or to the person of Don Alfonso XIII., but they will not oppose the restoration of the monarchy. On the contrary, the strength of the Fajangist movement and its Syndicalist ferment would incline them towards restoration from fear of the ultimate domination of the country by Falangism. From Corunna to Saragossa, the old Carlist motto, “Dios, Patria, y Rey”— “God, country, and king”—is the inspiration of the people. Castile, like Navarro, wants a king. Who is he to be? Nobody knows yet. But in the Spanish territory through which I b:.ve jut passed there is but one : ; ;atioi —to finish with Marxism and • i .no to a monarchy of all i . ’. ’ 1 Spains and to the Catholic