MILITIA REFUSES TO FIGHT

Southland Times, Issue 22999, 19 September 1936, Page 7

MILITIA REFUSES TO FIGHT

REBELS ADVANCE ON MALAGA

STORIES OF COMMUNIST ATROCITIES

TORTURE OF FASCISTS

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7.50 p.m.) London, September 18. The Gibraltar correspondent of The Times says that it is reliably reported from Malaga that the Red Militia declines to fight and the governor is urgently asking for reinforcements from Madrid. ' The insurgents are rapidly advancing on Malaga. A message from Burgos, the insurgent headquarters, says that the rebels claim an important victory in the south. They scaled the rocky, precipitous heights around Ronda and captured the town, opening the way to Malaga. Elsewhere the situation has little changed, only isolated skirmishing being reported. Sir Percival Phillips in a message to The Daily Telegraph from Malaga, states that terror prevails in the city. Killings are conducted by “safety committees” who go round the prisons, taking out 40 or 50 victims each day and shooting them. “I was told stories of atrocities almost beyond belief,” he says. “It has been a common practice to fling pails of petrol over roped victims and set them alight. “The Public Safety Committee announces that all the remaining nonCommunists will be massacred if the rebels approach. General Franco simultaneously announces that his troops will show no mercy when they take the city.”