ASSAULT FAILS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22517, 7 September 1936, Page 9

ASSAULT FAILS

ISLAND OF MAJOKCA WITHDRAWAL OF ATTACKERS SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received September G, 6.35 p.m.) MADRID. Sept. 5 It is admitted that a Government attack on Majorca, Balearic Islands, failed after the loss of prisoners, arms and munitions. The remainder of the force will be sent to Ar'agon to support the attack on Saragossa. Majorca was a small-scale Gallipoli. An official communique dealing with the withdrawal says: "The heroic Catalan column withdrew after a magnificent action and reembarked. "The men escaperl scathless owing to Captain Bavos' admirable strategy in accordance with orders from the Republican Government, which did not consult the Catalonian Government on the matter." The landing was largely a Catalonian idea to which Madrid Avas opposed, the Cabinet declaring that Majorca could wait. The rebels captured the seaside village of Fuentarrabia after a two hours' battle, the garrison fleeing in boats to France under fire. Several were wounded. '

SARAGOSSA FRONT CITY TO BE ATTACKED GOVERNMENT'S PREPARATIONS (Received September 6, 6.35 p.m.) MADRID, Sept. 5 A loyalist force of 10,000 men under General Buenaventura Durruti and Major Perez Farras, on the Saragossa front, northern Spain, is within sight of that city. An attack is to be launched on it after the arrival of 25,000 reinforcements from Catalonia. The rebels are doing their utmost to hamper the advance of the reinforcements and claim to have inflicted a reverse upon them and to have killed 300 in the City of Pamplona. HUMANISING WARFARE PROPOSALS REJECTED GOVERNMENT PREOCCUPIED (Received September 6, 6.35 p.m.) MADRID, Sept. 6 The Government has rejected the proposals for humanising warfare on the ground of its preoccupation in suppressing the rebels. LONDON CONFERENCE NON-INTERVENTION PLAN GERMANY'S REPRESENTATIVE (Received September 6, 6.35 p.m.) BERLIN, Sept. H Count Bismarck, German Charge D'Affaires in London, will represent Germany on the London Committee to supervise the application of the nonintervention agreement in respect to Spain.

DELAY DEPRECATED ENFORCING AGREEMENT BRITISH LABOUR'S PROTEST LONDON, Sept. 4 A joint meeting of the national executive of the Labour Party, tho executive of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress at Plymouth telegraphed to the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Eden, expressing grave concern at the delay in bringing the non-intervention agreement effectively into force. PROPOSED COMMITTEE POWERS STILL UNDECIDED INFORMATION REQUIRED British Wireless RUGBY, Sept. 4 The proposal for an international committee to act as a clearing house in connection with the agreement among outside States for non-intervention iii the Spanish civil war has now been accepted by most of the Governments who subscribed to the original agreement. The German and Portuguese Governments, however, have indicated that they cannot give a final answer to the urgent representations, which have been made to them both by the British and the French to join in the plan for the establishment of a committee, without having more precise information as to the nature and scope of its functions. A message from Paris states that after a consultation with the French Government, Britain has instructed its representatives in Berlin and Lisbon to explain the scope of the committee to those Governments. There is now no hope that the •committee will meet for at least a week."