SCENES DURING BOMBARDMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 155, 2 June 1937, Page 9

SCENES DURING BOMBARDMENT

DEATH ROLL HIGH CATHEDRAL DAMAGED BADLY LONDON, June 1. ■ The Almeria correspondent of the Times says that the coast batteries fired 70 sliells in reply when the German naval forces bombed Almeria, forcing the German ships to withdraw from the shore. Some of the attackers were enveloped in smoke, believed to be the results of hits from the batteries. When the cannonading began multitudes of panic-stricken people rushed into the streets. Their terror was increased by houses and walls crashing on all sides, and by nauseating fumes from the bursting, shells. Many were injured by falling debus, and a similar fate overcame those remaining- in the houses. Numerous dead lie buried in the ruins, and portions of mu llated bodies are to be seen in the streets. It is feared that the death-roll, when complete, will be hiHi. Hour of the chief streets suffered heavily, some shells each destroying three or four houses. The telephone and electric light systems were partially destroyed, and the sixteenth century cathedral badly damaged. Some of the shells were 11-mch calibre aud ol) inches long. An official statement from the Valencia Government is that there were no military objectives in the town of Almeria.

“ACT OF FLAGRANT, ACCRESSION.” .SPANISH NOTE TO THE LEAGUE. GENEVA, June 1. The representative of the Spanish Government to the League of Nations (Senor del Vayo), reported to the League a statement that on Saturday afternoon two aeroplanes reconnoitring rebel centres at Ibiza were fired on by a German warship. Spanish aircraft retaliated by bombing the aggressor, which the Spanish Government immediately announced, whereas the German Government waited for 24 hours to announce that the Deutschland had been bombed. The Note then declares that the bombardment of Almeria was an act of flagrant aggression and the greatest outrage against a sovereign State of all the acts of aggressmn committed by the German fleet since it intervened in Spam. The Note adds that in view of the-exceptional gravity of the act decided on by Germany, the Spanish Government, after long deliberation, and also in view of the announcement that Germany is dispatching more warships to Spain, asks that this communication be transmitted to members of the League.