REFUGEE SHIP STOPPED BY REBEL CRUISER

Northern Advocate, 24 June 1937, Page 7

REFUGEE SHIP STOPPED BY REBEL CRUISER

(Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, June 23. The Bordeaux correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” reports that the British cargo steamer Marianna Moller, with 1700 refugees on board from Santander, was stopped oh the high seas by General Franco's ship, Ciudad de Palma.

The British captain wirelessed to the battleship Resolution, which ordered the destroyer Bcadicea to convoy the Marianna Moller to St. Jean de Luz, where both arrived at midnight yesterday. . The authorities, however, refused to allow the fugitives to land as they believed militiamen were on board.

The Bayonne correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says . the Basque Minister of Health, Senor Alfredo Espinosa, and several others were flying from Toulouse to Santander, when they were taken prisoner when their French commercial aeroplane made a forced landing in insurgent territory.

The Barcelona correspondent of the British United Press says 300 suspects, including a supporter of Trotsky named Nin, and other leading members of the Trotsky Party, also the former Minister of Justice in the Catalan Government, have been arrested. They are accused of belonging to a vast espionage organisation, which is taking advantage of the plight of Spain in order to conduct subversive activities. $ * * • An official statement from Rome claims that 43 volunteer Italian airmen have been killed in the Spanish war and that Italian aviators have brought down 218 French, British, Russian and American planes.

Naval authorities report the discovery of two mines at Cape Bajur, 70 miles north-east of Barcelona, which have been brought ashore for examination.