500 Deaths a Day In Madrid Battle

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 291, 9 December 1936, Page 4

500 Deaths a Day In Madrid Battle

Hideous Slaughter of Political Prisoners

LAWLESS MOBS MURDER AT WILL United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyrlfrh t. Received Tuesday, 8.10 pju. LONDON. Dec. 8. General Franco as is his custom is keeping up the hearts of his adherents by repeating his promise of an early full strength offensive against the capital. The total death-roll on this front is estimated at 500 daily during the month. Three Englishmen were killed in the November fighting. Members of the Commons who visited Spain to investigate the conditions there have returned and will see Mr. Anthony Eden to-day. The Times’ Madrid correspondent says less than a dozen actual prisoners of war could be mustered in Madrid because those who were not summarily shot are compelled to serve in tho loyalist forces. The Government allowed the members of the Commons to go everywhere, sec everything and privately interview prisoners but the Government, which must maintain its administration while conducting the war against the revolutionaries, dare not risk splitting the Popular Front, the iconoclast section of which is taking advantage of the situation by unjustified arrests and executions while the lawless militia who never take a turn in the trenches murder at will. This hideous feature of the revolution has reached such proportions that it demands not only Government action but international control.

Big Demonstration PROTEST AGAINST NONINTERVENTION. PARIS, December 7. A big demonstration, mostly by Communists, protesting against non-inter-vention in Spain, lias taken place. M. Jouhou, Secretary of the General Confederation of Labour, said that he was bringing the entire confederation to the maintenance of the Spanisli Republic. Pitiable Plight of Spanish Children URGENT NEED OF CLOTHES AND FOOD Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night. Reports describing the privations of children in Spain have been received by the Dominion headquarters of the Red Cross Society. Ju many cases children have been cut off from their parents and are unable to say how they are faring owing to the course of events in tho civil war. Information is also given of thousands of destitute Spanish children who urgently need clothes and food. Many of them are war orphans and others have been separated from their, parents as a result of the tragic happenings. With winter at hand the need of warm clothes is even greater and already donations are being made from all parts of the world. In this direction tho junior Red Cross has been particularly active us the appeal has been more especially for clothing for children between the ages of three and seven. No distinction is made botweeu the two factious in Spain as the need is great on both sides.