FATE OF TERUEL DEFENDERS SEALED

Northern Advocate, 28 December 1937, Page 5

FATE OF TERUEL DEFENDERS SEALED

(Received 1 p.m.) MADRID, December 27. Four insui’gent warships shelled Castellon, on the coast east of Teruel, and also Burrlana, near Castellon„ where foreign ships were loading oranges. Government aeroplanes drove off the warships. The ''Ministry of Defence has issued 'a communique stating that the seminary and the civil governor’s residence ■ are now the. only places in which the rebels are holding out in Teruel. Both buildings are now on fire. Rebel counter-attacks are described as of “no importance.” An eye-witness who has returned from Teruel says the city is fully surrounded by two concentric rings of loyalists, and the fate of the defenders, who lack food, water and muni-, tions, is sealed. Assured of Conquest. Assured of conquest, the loyalists are confidently preparing comprehensive s'anitary, judicial and financial plans, to b ecome operktive when the city falls. They are evacuating civilians from the captured sections in order to permit them to recuperate in adjacent villages from the long confinement in cellars. The entire sequence of the operations demonstrates greatly the increased efficiency and discipline of the loyalists, who so effectively con-’ cealed their intentions that none of General Franco’s airmen 'appeared for eight days after the loyalists had launched the first attack. The general situation has greatly heartened the loyalist cause.