TRAGIC TOLL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 54, 3 February 1937, Page 9

TRAGIC TOLL

IN SPANISH CONFLICT. MURDERS OF CLERGY. VATICAN CITY REPORT. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Received February 3, 9.55 a.m. ROME, Feb. 2. The Vatican City newspaper Osservatore Romano reports that since the beginning of the Spanish conflict eleven bishops and many priests, or between 40 and 50 per cent, of the entire Spanish clergy, have been murdered by the Reds; The assassination ratio in nine dioceses is 80 and in Malaga 90. Almost all the churches in twenty-three dioceses have been destroyed. RICH PRIZE CAPTURED. • LOYALIST CARGO STEAMER. Received February 3, 1.10 p.m. GIBRALTAR, Feb. 2. A rebel gunboat between Europa Point and Malaga captured the Loyalist steamer Arnabal-Mendi, which slipped out of Gibraltar for Valencia, trusting to rough weather for the safety of her cargo, which is worth £225,000, consisting mainly of groceries, petrol and tobacco, which- are now being discharged at Ceuta. CIVILIANS KILLED. DEATHS AT MALAGA. MADRID, Feb. 1. Madrid is still holding out against General Franco. The danger of a resumption of the rebel attacK on Malaga seems at present, to have been averted. Seventy-five per cent, of the casualties at Malaga, as at Madrid, are women and children.

The vaunted prowess of the Moors, which formerly bulked large in. war messages, is now almost unmentioned German soldiers do not conceal their contempt ior General Franco’s amateurish ideas of warfare, while General Franco is disinclined to employ the Germans because he is aware that their operations would ' eoiipso anything of which his troops are capable. Confirmation is lacking of the Daily Herald’s story of an armed clash between German and Spanish officers, but the prevalence of international jealousy is sufficient to account for it.

SUPERVISION PLAN. (British Official Wireless.) Received February 3, 11.45 a.m. RUGBY, Feb. 2. The 21th meeting of the chairman’s sub-committee of the International Non-Intervention Committee was held at the Foreign Office to-day. The sub-committee considered a number of questions which would require to be settled by the participating Governments immediately they agreed to adopt the proposed scheme for the supervision of the land and sea frontiers of Spain and the Spanish dependencies in order to bring that scheme into immediate operation.