CIVILIANS DIG TRENCHES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 47, 24 January 1939, Page 7

CIVILIANS DIG TRENCHES.

WOMEN WOUNDED BY BOMBERS

Received January 24, 12.20 p.m. BARCELONA, Jan. 23.

The British destroyer Devonshire is standing by at Caldetas to take off British citizens.

Civilian workers to-day marched to the outskirts of the city to dig trenches and raise barricades. Battalions of women of all ages and occupations assisted, but they were forced to take cover wlien rebel bombers came over and tried to destroy the defence works before they were even completed. A few of the women were wounded as the ’planes machine-gunned the trenches, but as the danger passed others resumed digging.

AMERICANS WARNED

DEPARTURE FROM CATALONIA

Received January 24, 9.4 a.m

BARCELONA, Jan. 23

The rebels bombed the British vessel Thorpe Bay to-day, killing William McLennan, the second mate, and a Greek messboy. Americans throughout Catalonia have been ordered to he prepared to evacuate. Tho Consul-General (Mr Douglas Flood) has sent a wireless message to the cruiser Omaha, which is visiting Villefranchc, asking it to proceed' immediately to Caldetas, 20 miles north of Barcelona, and take aboard 30 Americans.