UNREST IN SPAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22398, 20 April 1936, Page 10

UNREST IN SPAIN

SHORT-LIVED STRIKE SEVERAL ARMED CLASHES FASCISM ILLEGAL GOVERNMENT'S EDICT By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received Ap::il 19, 5.5 p.m.) MADRID. April 18 The National Confederation of Labour called a general strike in Madrid yesterday as a protest against the shooting outrage on Thursday at the funeral of an ensign of the Civil Guard.

Trams and buses were stopped and taxis cleared from the streets, shopkeepers being compelled to put up their shutters. There were long queues outside the bakers' shops, the proprietors of which were permitted to sell bread in the morning. The Government is taking stern 'measures. Numerous Army oflicers and Civil Guards, accused of conspiring with Fascists, have been arrested, including 170 suspected of complicity in the 6hooting yesterday. The Cabinet has declared the Fascist movement illegal and is dismissing policemen with Fascist sympathies. There was considerable rioting this afternodn, but it was not regarded seriously.

The strike endec'l at midnight after the Government had declared the Fascist movement illegal. The chief of the Civil Guard and the Chief of Police resigned and will he replaced by leading Socialists. Fascist sympathisers in the Army and the police force will be dismissed. Revolver fights and sporadic rioting have caused the Government to extend the state of alarm for a month.

Two Fascist brothers, Elov Fernandez, aged 24, and Antinido Fernandez, 32, both of whom had been previously threatened with death, were killed in a clash with Communists near Madrid. A youth was killed at Haro by Fascists who sacked the headquarters of the Traditionalist Party and afterwards invaded a casino. Tliere they wrecked a bar, threw furniture into the streets and set fire to the wreckage. Reports from Cadiz state that the premises of members of the Right Wing Party were stoned by anti-Fascists, who also burned a church and several wine warehouses. The Government has accepted the resignation of Senor Ayala, Ambassador to Britain.