LOYALISTS' PLIGHT

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 13819, 29 March 1938, Page 5

LOYALISTS' PLIGHT

STRING OF REBEL VICTORIES THOUSANDS FLEEING BEFORE THEM United Press Assn.--By Electric i eltgi aph—Copyright. LONDON, March 2b. The loyalists have retreated 20 miles in 4b hours along tho Sarugus-sa-i.erlua road, says a Saragossa .t----port. The rebels, beiore entering Sarinena, fought their way through a mile deep deience system. ihey then launched an attack at nightfall w ith bombs and hand grenades, overcoming fierce resistance. Their line now stretches unbroken from Ebra to Sierra de uGara, thus encircling the former loyalist positions in the so-called granary ot Catalonia. The rebels captured the village of Masalcorreig, 22 miles from Lerida, which they are now investing in the hope oi subjugating the crack Government troops defending it _ The invaders, irom aerial photographs , learned the exact position of the loyalist trenches and blockhouses in the deience zone o n the Cinca Plateau and launched stpi.idrous ot bombers, which wrecked them. They follow ed up with fighters,, which ma-chine-gunned the survivors. The Alcaniz correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says wrecked cars lorries, dead mules, dogs and abandoned clothes mark the line of flight of thousands of lugutives. The pilots ol three loyalist aeroplanes landing at Mas Delas Matas were dismayed to find it was in the hands of the rebels,, who took them prisoner. The Saragossa correepoudent ol the Dailv Telegraph says that the loyalists on the Estramadura front where they claim to have advanced six miles.

AID FROM FRANCE. LONDON, March 27. The Paris correspondent of the British United Press states than an effort by the Popular Front to supply the Spanish loyalists with food, clothing and medicines is bearing fruit. Dozens of heavy motor-lorries are speeding across France tc the trontier and a few from Belgium to join them. There is hardly a tow n m which sympathisers have not subscribed .