LIVING DEATH

Southland Times, Issue 21822, 27 September 1932, Page 5

LIVING DEATH

SPANISH MONARCHISTS 0 MASS DEPORTATION TO AFRICA TERRIBLE CONDITIONS • (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7.0 p.m.) London, September 25. The Daily Mail’s correspondent at Hendays, on the Spanish frontier, states that mass deportation, eclipsing in horror the worst exploits of the Bolsheviks, is the sequel to the San Jurgo revolt. The fourth batch of 138 Monarchists, including cousins of exiting Alfonso, grandees and high officials who served the Monarchy, is now packed on board. the transport Espana under conditions infinitely worse than any old-time Botany Bay convict ship. They are en route to Villa Cisneros, a barren, sun-baked outpost of North-West Africa, compared with which Devil’s Island is Eden. , The flower of Spanish aristocracy is thus condemned to a living death in the no man’s land of Rio de Oro, where the Spanish garrison at Villa Cisneros is never able to maintain more than a small military post. Sentries dare not venture beyond barbed wire defences at night-time for fear of fierce nomad Arab tribesmen. The question is how many deportees will arrive in a state of health enabling them to support the awful conditions of imprisonment in the desert outpost, or how many will return alive?