TRAGEDY OF MADRID

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22792, 28 July 1937, Page 13

TRAGEDY OF MADRID

NEW ZEALAND VOLUNTEER *

SIDELIGHTS ON STRIFE Sidelights oil the civil war' in Spain are presented in letters •written to his people by a young New Zealander at present fighting with tho International Column on behalf of the Spanish Government, says the Wellington Post. In a letter to his mother, written early in May, the young soldier says that he left London on January 9, before the ban was placed on volunteers by the English Government, and, after a stay Qf four days at Toulouse, was flown into Spain, to Barcelona. After a stay of 12 days there he went on to Albacete, where he joined the Lincoln Battalion of the International Column. In a later letter the writer says:— " I have been in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and smaller places like Albacete and Alcala do Henares (the birthplace of Cervantes) and in a little country pueblos and villages, and everywhere the people of ■ Spain—farmers, doctors, business men, industrial workers and, above all, the youth and women's organisations, aire as one in their desire to crush Fascism. That is tho first and most important task. When that is finished, then the Spanish, people can decide their own destinies and form of Government.

"Imagine walking along Willis Street some afternoon and suddenly shells burst 011 the crowded pavements and hurtle into the buildings. Would 3*oll continue to walk along Willis Street on the morrow? And on doing so and seeing more shells falling, would you walk there on the third day? Yet after weeks of this diabolical and relentless shelling the people of Madrid still continue to use the main streets and carry 011 'busines as usual.' I did not read about this or hear about it: I saw it myself and I helped to pick up wounded women and dead children who at 11 o'clock on a bright sunny morning went out to their shopping and their deaths. 111 the early days all art galleries, museums and buildings of such a nature, were placed under guard to prevent hooligans from doing damage to the priceless contents." To-day many of those buildings are in ruins, thanks to Franco's bombs and shells."

Confidence in victory after the reorganisation of the Cabinet and the army under a unified control and with a bolder policy is expressed by the writer. " When that is accomplished and if I am still living I will come out to New Zealand to see you all. If I cannot do this, remember I am just' as fond of life as you are. The things which go to make life enjoyable to you also do the same for me, and 1 have no desire to give them up. If I have to die, 1 shall die happy, knowing that I have died for a cause for which many thousands, better ineu than I, have gladly given their lives."