REBEL STRATEGY SUCCEEDS

Southland Times, Issue 23025, 20 October 1936, Page 7

REBEL STRATEGY SUCCEEDS

Surprise Thrust from Toledo DEFENDERS OF MADRID DRIVEN BACK INSURGENTS 17 MILES FROM CAPITAL (United Press Assn. —Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7.35 p.m.) London, October 18. The special correspondent of The Daily Mail in a cabled message from the Toledo-Madrid area, says that the insurgents’ surprise thrust from Toledo, by which they hammered a gap in the outer defences of Madrid, was one of the strategical victories of tha campaign. General Varela suddenly swung the main weight of his blows at the capital from Talavera to the road to Madrid. Foreign Legionaries and Moors surrounded and captured Olias del Rey, while a cavalry division attacked the Government forces on the Tagus river, pouring over the flat country to points commanding railway junctions at Algodor and Castillego, 18 miles from Toledo. General Varela to-day resumed his advance, capturing Illescas, which is 24 miles from Madrid, the loyalists abandoning their positions so swiftly that it appeared that they had tired of fighting, but they halted at Torrijon, 17 miles from Madrid, where they are digging in. Skill Defeats Numbers. t The Madrid corresponde. t of The Times says that the insurgents’ advance in the valley of the Tagus was a triumph of superior equipment, manoeuvring, organization and leadership over numbers. Moors, exploiting terrain similar to the Moroccan mountains and assisted by cavalry, tanks and aeroplanes, repeatedly outflanked the town-bred militia, who were inexperienced in cross-country marching and fighting. A broadcast by the insurgents from Seville states that Fascist volunteers and Foreign Legionaries entered Oviedo, relieved the defenders, completely raised the siege, routed the Government forces and caught the Asturian miners between two fires, causing enormous losses. The insurgents also lost heavily, having to cross barbed-wire entanglements. . When the insurgents reached Oviedo, they found only 300 defenders left, while only 20 of the 70 officers of the original garrison were alive. Before they retreated the Government troops blew up a huge dump of dynamite, but this failed to check the insurgents’ advance. It is stated that in the siege of three months the Government forces’ dead total 5000. HUMANITARIAN MOVE BY LATIN AMERICA EFFORT TO SAVE SPANISH REFUGEES. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) Buenos Aires, Oct. 18. Diplomats disclosed to-day that at a secret conference here yesterday Argentina began conversations with a view to organizing the 14 South and Central American republics in a united effort to save the hundreds of Spanish citizens who have taken refuge at their embassies and legations in Madrid. The. principle of diplomatic asylum has been part of Latin American international law since 1889, but is not recognized in Europe under the principle that a refugee shares the immunity of the ambassador or Minister, whose agent escorts him to a frontier with the full knowledge of the authorities from whom he is fleeing.