BREST DRAMA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22839, 21 September 1937, Page 9

BREST DRAMA

SPANISH RIVALS SCENE ON SUBMARINE CAPTAIN REFUSES BRIBE KIDNAPPED BY TRAITORS By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received September 20, <">.s p.m.) BREST, Sept, 20 While the engines of the Spanish Government's submarine C2 were being repaired in Brest harbour and the majority of the crew were ashore, 12 men boarded the vessel from a rowing boat and covered the guard with automatic rifles. Tho leader demanded to see the captain, Commandant Jose Fernando. Tfc is alleged that tlio leader of the party told the captain that he was the commander of the Spanish submarine CI, at present being repaired at Verdon, near Bordeaux, adding that he, with his crew, had gone over to the insurgents. He offered Commandant Ferrando 3,000,000 pesetas to join them with his ship. The offer was refused, whereupon the captain of C2 and his "skeleton" crew were bound and gagged. The captors then fruitlessly endeavoured to start the engines. They had gathered on deck to deliberate on the position when a sailor on the C2, who had hidden in the conning tower, sounded thp siren and fired a revolver at them, killing one. The others escaped in a boat, dragging off Commandant Ferrando and the chief engineer with them. They then drove away in motor-cars from the quay.

The police searched the countryside and arrested six men, including their leader. Papers in the possession of this man, Juan Lasharas, who was the commander of the C 4, included a letter front General Toncoso, Commandant at Irun, offering him 2.000,000 pesetas and guaranteeing his safety if he joined the Nationalists with the crew of the submarine. The man who was killed on board the C2 was a Spanish terrorist named Gabaria, wanted by the police in connection with a bomb outrage in Marseilles.

The arrested men included Emmanuel Morendnin, a Spaniard, who is believed to have placed a bomb on a Spanish Government ship at Bayonne in March.