FALL OF BILBAO

Kaikoura Star, Volume LVII, Issue 48, 17 June 1937, Page 4

FALL OF BILBAO

REBEL TROOPS IN THE CITY. CRITICAL STAGE IN THE WAR. LONDON, June 14. Bilbao can now be considered taken, says a broadcast from Vittoria picked up at St. Jean de Luz. Hendaye reports that the insurgents are entering Bilbao, which the Basques are evacuating and retreating to San tander. The Basque Government had earlier transferred to Santander. Rebel planes indiscriminately bombed the centre of Bilbao, and the rebels captured the seaside suburb of Las Arenas, which they heavily bombed on Sunday, destroying the British Consulate. The Britiish Consuls at Bilbao and Santander have boarded British warships. The Duke de Balen, a diplomat at St. Jean De Luz, who is a supporter of the rebel commander-in-chief, General Franco, told the British United Press agency that small patrols arc entering Bilbao, but the bulk of the army will not enter until to-morrow as it is feared the town is mined. The Basque troops have all left, but many women refuse to depart. Earlier despatches from Bilbao denied an insurgent statement issued at Salamanca alleging that the Basque Government had fled to Santander. NEW ZEALANDER’S IMPRESSIONS. "GOVERNMENT WILL WIN.” AUCKLAND, June 15. "The Government will win, but nobody believes me when I tell them.” said Captain E. N. Griffiths, the New Zealander who is attached to the Air Force of the Spanish Government, on arrival by the- Monowai yesterday on three months furlough after being struck in the right shoulder by an explosive bullet while acting as escort of several Government bombers. "We were leaped on by eight 1936 Fiat fighting planes about 20 miles out over the lines,” he said in 41 laconic description of the incident. "There were only two of us acting as escorts, and we were flying old ships. The other fellow was killed, and I stopped one in the shoulder from an expanding bullet.”

EVACUATION OF MADRID. INSURGENTS PLAN LAST ASSAULT LONDON, June 14. Surprising news comes from Madrid reporting that General Miaja has ordered the immediate evacuation of the civil population in three batches. The first batch will comprise persons from the provinces occupied by the insurgents, the second those from the province of Madrid, and the third those from the suburbs. This can be explained only by the news that an insurgent airman to-day dropped a .long proclamation on the Gnardarrama front warning the loyalists that the last assault on the capital was imminent. "The capture of Malaga was the work of a few days,” states the proclamation. "That, of Madrid will bo the same. ’ ’