DRIVE TO SEA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23060, 10 June 1938, Page 11

DRIVE TO SEA

FRANCO'S ADVANCE / ■ DEFENCE crumbles REPUBLICANS' LOSSES GUNS AND MEN TAKEN INTENSE aie fighting By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received June 9, 0.50 p.m.) LONDON, June 9 Evidence is accumulating that the Republican resistance to General Franco is crumbling on the TeruelCastellon front. The insurgents are inflicting heavy losses and are advancing rapidly toward Castellon, capturing large quantities of war materials and numerous prisoners, says a message from Salamanca. Large parties are being left to bury the hundreds of Republican dead as the Nationalists sweep forward. General Franco's prospects of tightening his grip on the Mediterranean coastline have greatly improved since his capture of Adzaneta, 15 miles from Castellon, by which he acquired an excellent network of communications. Now the Nationalists are hammering at Villafarmes, 10 miles from Castellon, which is the Republican headquarters. Scores of insurgent aeroplanes are operating, the Republicans losing 11 jnachines yesterday.

In spite of the insurgents' success, says the Tinges' Hendave correspondent, since the chance of a decision waned with the. halt on the Ebro and Segre rivers; the prospects of a long struggle have increased. The Republican Prime Minister, Dr. Negrin, promptly took advantage of the respite, the Republicans disputing every mile and counterattacking. Although they were defeated and out-manoeuvred on the field, the fearful punishment inflicted upon their rearguard'by aerial bombing failed to produce a collapse. >

V Even the abandonment of non-inter-vention will not hasten the end of the war, says the correspondent. The Spaniards are temperamentally more inclined to fight it out than to compromise. Unlike the situation in previous Spanish civil wars, both sides have been working out social reforms during hostilities. The duration of the war has enabled both .sides to consolidate, but the new...organisations offer no hope of co-operation, although it is inevitable that the Spaniards will some day have to live together again.