GROWING UNREST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25674, 24 October 1944, Page 6

GROWING UNREST

SPANISH POPULATION l REPUBLICANS AND MAQUIS ACTIVE (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 23. The Spanish Government is reported to have prepared refuge camps in Spain for German troops cut off in. Southeastern France. L’Humaiiite, the Paris Communist newspaper, says that many Germans are attempting to escape from the French Maquis and cross the French border into Spain. Simultaneously Paris Left Wing newspapers report growing restlessness of the Spanish population, particularly in Northern Spain. About 20,000 Spanish Republicans and Maquis have gathered around Lerida (Catalonia) and more have crossed the Spanish border from France. Many of these men are Spaniards who fought with the French Maquis against the Germans in South-western France. Twenty Spanish divisions are massed-.along the French-Spanish frontier, including the 42nd Division, which arrived at Catalonia to aid in the “pacification” of the province. Peasants in this and other districts are reported to be refusing to deliver their crops to General Franco’s Government.

L’Hpmanite states that Franco has demanded that General de Gaulle should disarm Spanish Republican members of the French Forces of the Interior. Franco has threatened 1 that if the French authorities do not do it he will send Spanish troops across the border -to disarm\them. „ General de Gaulle refused to consider the demand. The Paris newspaper, Le Populaire, reports that heavy fines are being imposed in Andorra, Aragon, Catalonia and Estremadura on peasants who are helping the Spanish-Maquis with food. Incidents reported by various correspondents of the Paris Left Wing newspapers. include: At Granada, the police chief, who is alleged to have used terror tactics against workers, has been shot; Spanish guerrillas recently attacked the barracks at Vich, in Catalonia, and killed a number of guards and liberated political prisoners; guerrillas at Seville set fire to a factory working for Hitler; at Gerona, Republicans ambushed a truck convoy and wiped out a detachment of guards.