PEOPLE FLEEING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 25 January 1939, Page 7

PEOPLE FLEEING

ROAD JAMMED WITH VEHICLES ARMY WILL HOLD ON TO THE LAST (Received 25th January. 12.30 p.m.) BARCELONA. 24th January. Amid the crashing of bombs from anti-aircraft guns, and the roar of General Franco’s big guns, the city to-day began feverishly to pack up. The Government army is determin- | ed to hold on to the last, but tens of thousands are fleeing. Machinery has been stripped from factories. The whole apparatus of the Central and Catalan Administration were carted off. The road to Genora is jammed with vehicles of all descriptions. Gerona, which has normally 25.000 inhabitants, received 20.000 refugees in the last week, yet new crowds are pouring in Officials are vainly searching for quarters in which to instal the Government departments, which are being driven farther north to Figuera. Some departments came originally from Madrid to Valencia, thence to Barcelona, and are now on the road again after travelling 600 miles in two years. The people of Barcelona find the battlefront, which was 100 miles away last month, now visible from the city. Madrid could be defended because there is at least one gun to five insurgent guns, but Barcelona probably has not one to twenty. It is obvious that the shallow trenches hastily dug are no use against massed batteries.