HOSPITAL BOMBED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22984, 11 March 1938, Page 9

HOSPITAL BOMBED

SPANISH INSURGENTS 105 PATIENTS KILLED DESTRUCTION OF BUILDING By Telegrarh—Press Association—Copyright (Received March 10, 0.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 10 A communique issued by the Spanish Ministry of Defence at Barcelona states that insurgent bombers yesterday destroyed a hospital at Puebla de Hijar, killing 105 patients. A message from Saragossa says the Nationalists have launched nn offensive 011 the Aragon front. They claim that, aided by tanks, they subdued hundreds of machine-gun nests, took numerous prisoners and advanced 10 miles.

SCENES OF HORROR TORPEDOED CRUISER VICTIMS IN OILY WATER (Received March 10, 7 p.m.) Times Cable • LONDON, March 10 Tho Gibraltar correspondent of tho Times says trustworthy accounts disclose tho horrors attending the sinking of tho Spanish rebel cruiser Baleares. Tho waters surrounding the ship became a mass of oil fuel, owing to an explosion in a fuel tank. Those of the crew who jumped found it very difficult to swim in the oily water, which also saturated the lifelines dropped from the British destroyers Kempenfelt and Boreas. This caused the lines to slip through the clutching hands of many who struggled for life in these terrible conditions and eventually perished. Tho confusion was increased by the Republican aeroplanes continually bombing tho waters about the Baleares. BRITISH PROTEST ATTACK ON WARSHIPS SERIOUS VIEW OF INCIDENT British Wireless RUGBY, March 9 Replying to a question in the House of Commons, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, Mr. G. H. Shakespeare, confirmed tho reports of the attack on the British destroyers Blanche ■ and Brilliant by five unidentified aircraft off the coast of Spain. "The Government," Mr. Shakespeare said, "took a serious view of such attacks, and a suitable protest was being addressed to the Spanish Government, since, on the available evidence, the British Government believed that the attacking aircraft were in the service of the Spanish Government."