SPANISH WARFARE.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 383, 15 March 1937, Page 5

SPANISH WARFARE.

Protest Against Italian Activity. Press Association —Copyright. London, March 13. Participation in the Spanish conflict of Italian regular army contingents numbering over 80,000 soldiers, constitutes the most scandalous post-war violation in Europe of the principles on which international community is based and also raises a politics,! question of the greatest magnitude, says a Spanish Note presented to the British Foreign Office.

Quoting the evidence of Italian regular officers, Major Antonio Luciano, commanding the machine-guns of the Littoria Division; Lieutenant Achille Sacchi, a member of the Third Blackshirts Division, and of five other captured soldiers, the Note asserts that Italian steamers on February 6 landed at Cadiz numerous regular soldiers, who were sent to the Guadalajara front to participate in the present offensive in which four motorised Italian divisions, three of Blackshirts and one Littoria division —commanded by General Mangin are participating. They are assisted by two special brigades of Italian and German regulars, including motorised carbiniers. The Note details their personnel, equipment and formations and adds that 84 Italian and German bombers and fighters have attacked in force. Germany is supplying three squadrons and Italy four. Moreover, two more Italians divisions are expected, with which it is proposed to take Madrid while the Italian and German fleets attack Barcelona and Valencia on the pretext of watching the coast. The Note declares that the Italian Government’s dispatch of an expedition to assist the rebels is not solvable by a collaboration by the countries which must undertake the honour and responsibility of the functions which direct international life. It asks Britain, as soon as possible, to initiate an examination of the Spanish statements by a non-intervention committee with a view to finally and irrevocably deciding the real character of the Italian collaboration with the rebels.

A communique claims the defeat of Italians at Guadalajara. Sixty ’planes, after bombarding bivouacs throughout the night and to-day, attacked mechanised divisions advancing towards Guadalajara, making eight flights and dropping 392 bombs and machine-gun-ning battalions, which fled panicstricken. The Loyalists retook three miles of the Aragon road, which was littered with wrecked tanks and material. They entered Trijueque and took 18 Italians prisoner and captured 12 guns and 70 machine-guns. The Intensity of the rebel pressure on tho Guadalajara front, which is the key position of Madrid’s defence, can be gauged from General Miajn’s diversion of two International Brigades from the Jarama sector to Gua.dalajara, with orders to hold it at all costs.