CIVIL WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22619, 6 January 1937, Page 9

CIVIL WAR

MADRID'S PERIL TRAGIC AIR RAID 17 REBEL MACHINES HEAVY CASUALTY LIST SUCCESSES OF LOYALISTS By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright MADRID, Jan. 4 In an air raid by the rebels on Madrid to-day 100 people were killed and 300 wounded. It was the most deadly attack from the air vet recorded. Seventeen aeroplanes participated. The casualties were heaviest in the northern working-class suburb of Tetuan. A bomb damaged the Chilian Embassy. The loyalists have occupied important ammunition works in Eskualdunn. thereby threatening the rebel occupants of the Getafe aerodrome, eight miles from the city. Government troops also advanced two and a-half miles on the Santandor front /toward Burgos, capturing strategically important positions.

AMERICAN MUNITIONS SHIPMENT TO SPAIN demand for prevention (Received January 10.35 p.m.) WASHINGTON*, Jan. 4 A demand for emergency action to prevent the shipment from the United States of munitions to Spain will be presented to Congress on Wednesday. ]t is expected that action will bo taken bv way of an amendment to the present Neutrality Act. LEAVING FOR SPAIN CONSUL IN AUSTRALIA position untenable (Received January 5. 10.r5." p.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 5 The Sun states that owing to complications which are alleged to have rendered untenable the position in Australia as Consul-General for Spain of Senor Tedro de Ygual he will leave Sydney for his home country at an early date. HERR HITLER'S DELAY .REPLY TO BRITISH APPEAL ANXIETY IN LONDON LONDON, Dec. 30 j The situation regarding non-inter-rention in Spain remains as anxious as . ever. This is primarily because of Herr j Hitler's prolonged delay in replying to the appeal by Britain and trance for i a ban on the sending of volunteers to Spain.; The appeal was accompanied, it is learned, by an intimation that only an honestly observed embargo on volunteers could prevent a European upheaval.

Mr. Vernon Bartlett, writing in the News Chronicle, sums up authoritative opinions when he says: "Germany s intervention has brought her to the most important parting of the ways since Versailles. She must either drastically change her foreign policy _ or enter upon a phase of misery and isolation that will lead to an explosion, internal or external, before the summer of 1937."

The real fear in Britain is that, apart from the inevitable sequel to German intervention in Spain being an inrush of French and Russian forces, Herr Hitler might decide on wholesale intervention, hoping thereby to overwhelm the Spanish Government s forces, to establish General Franco as Dictator over a united Spain, and to secure German access to Spanish Morocco, which vould endanger Britain's position in the Mediterranean.

The extent to which Herr Hitler is keeping even Germans guessing is illustrated by the Berlin correspondent of the Times, who states: "Except indirectly, the German population is unaware of the German support for General Franco. There is not the slightest sign that Germany is any nearer a decision to withdraw from tho Spanish venture or to enter its negotiations on the basis of a resumption of normal, economic collaboration with tho rest of Europe, and a slowing down of the rearmament and self-sufficiency programme in return for a general settlement that would remedy German grievances."

GERMANY DISSATISFIED INTERVENTIONIST POLICY ATTITUDE OF JHE SOVIET LONDON, Dec. .",0 The diplomatic correspondent of the Manchester Guardian says: —If Germany were tn despatch GO.OOO men, the number that General Franco is alleged to have demanded, or, indeed, an .v considerable force beyond the 10,000 or 20.000 men she now has in Spain, the policy of non-intervention would immediately collapse and a new situation would be created in which it Would be impossible to say how Britain and France would react. One tiling is certain: Germany has serious doubts about continuing her interventionist policy. Herr Hitler and General Goering are thoroughly dissatisfied with General Franco. Ihe Paris correspondent ot the Times, ' n pointing out that the Russian case is bettor understood in France than anywhere, says: —The cardinal point is that Russian assistance was not given the Spanish Government until it Wanie clear that material and aid given to the insurgents from other sources was likely, if not counterbalanced in time, to lead to the capture Madrid and the collapse of the Government forces. The Soviet would ask for nothing better than to retrain from all assistance to the Spanish Govemment in future, provided there were effective guarantees that no more foreign support would be given the