JAPANESE ASSIST REBELS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20679, 18 March 1937, Page 7

JAPANESE ASSIST REBELS

SEVERAL OFFICERS IN SPAIN AIR ATTACKS TAKE TERRIBLE TOLL ITALIANS SUFFER HEAVY CASUALTIES United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received March 17, 11.5 p.m.) LONDON, March 17. The diplomatic correspondent of “The Manchester Guardian” says: “Several Japanese officers are now participating in the Spanish civil war on the insurgent side.” Heavy Italians’ Losses Italian prisoners state that the Italians lost 1500 killed and wounded on the Guadalajara front. REBEL ALLEGATIONS ATTEMPTS TO INVOLVE FRANCE AND BRITAIN United Press Association— By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received March 17, 11.5 p.m.) LONDON, March 17. A Salamanca message says that General Franco’s headquarters claim that they have obtained the text of a Spanish Government Note, offering to cede Spanish Morocco to Britain and France, in exchange for military assistance. Air Raid Casualties The newspaper “La Voz” states that rebel air raids on the capital killed 14C7 and wounded 3488 from October 23 to February 28. INTENSE AIR ACTIVITY TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER OF REBELS United Press Association— By «3»ouic Telegraph— Copyright VALENCIA, March 16. Pressing home the advantages gained by the international columns, 55 loyalist aeroplanes raided the rebel concentrations round Brihuega, and drop;.-I 8' ; bombs and machine-gunned the rebel trenches, creating havoc and and slaughter for five hours. The Italian prisoners will be spared and will be released at t'..: end of the war and allowed to go home. Rebels Bomb Barcelona Five insurgent aeroplanes bombed the harbour and city. Four were killed and thirteen injured. A sailing ..hip was sunk. TRADE WITH SPAIN QUESTION IN HOUSE OF COMMONS British Official Wireless (Received March 17, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, March 16. Replying to a request for information regarding the visit of Mr A. R. Fraser, of the Board of Trade, to Burgos, Dr. Burgin (Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Board of Trade) stated in the House of Commons that the object of the visit was to discuss with the representatives of General Franco’s administration various questions of detail connected with their informal assurances regarding the future trade between the United Kingdom and the area of Spain under the control of General Franco. Questions arising on trade with the area under control of the Spanish Government have been discussed with representatives of that government in London.

‘FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE”

PEN PICTURE OF LOYALIST LEADER Behind the barricades in Spain Don Francisco Largo Caballero, plasterer and Prime Minister of the country, is fighting for his life and the lives of his supporters against a rebel army. But this week Senor Caballero threatened to resign if his home policy continued to meet with opposition. Caballero was born the son of a carpenter in a village. At seven he was put to work. Largo Caballero attended no school; he was one of Spain’s disinherited and disfranchised 12 millions. Until he was 20 he could not read or write. He taught himself. For forty years Caballero was a trade union organiser of the orthodox co-called Socialist persuasion. Not for him the lofty and individualist doctrines of the Anarchists, who were then far stronger in Spain’s small-scale industries than the Socialists. Not for Caballero the mass insurrectionary policy of Communism. Spain’s labour chief turned Spanish Communists down with emphasis. Caballero was a reformist. Experience in Gaol That did not keep him out of gaol in Old Spain. In 1917 King Alphonso’s police laid him by the heels in Cartagena gaol. Sentence: Life Imprisonment. He was pardoned. He even served under the Administration of General Primo de Rivera, Franco’s Fascist forerunner. When the Republic was set up in 1931 Caballero became Minister of Labour and Public Works. He fumbled about, trying to solve the problem of Spain’s landhungry peasants. He failed. Senior Lerroux, old-time Socialist, formed a National Government of the Right. Wisely he locked up Caballero. He got only thirty years this time. In the Republican gaol Caballero became what royalist persecution had never made him—a revolutionary. The boss of the Union General de Trabajores, 1,500,000 strong went Red. Lerroux charged him with inciting the abortive Asturias miners’ revolt of 1034. The Public Prosecutor called for his head. Caballero was acquitted. There was still some justice in Spain

in those days. But while he ’still lay in prison his wife dead. They let him out to attend her funeral. He drove in a cab behind the hearse, accompanied by warders. Sixty thousand of his followers lined the route. They raised the clenched fist silently. The Government set him free in December, 1935. A reporter said to him, suddenly gone grey with his 67 years, “Now you can rest.” Caballero said, “Now I will work.” Well Marked Man March, 1936, enemies shot up his house. He escaped, fie organised the Popular Front that won the election in the spring. For the first time in Spanish history Caballero persuaded the Anarchists, Socialist and Communists to work together. The Popular Front Government was formed, but not with Caballero. He stayed outside. “It won't last,” lie said, “the point is, who will take over—the army or us?” When Liberal Premier Azana stripped the Dons of half a million acres of land and gave it to the peasants Caballero said with a contemptuous grin: “An aspirin to cure an appendicitis!” He spurred and kicked the Republican Government onward into new assaults upon property. He told the peasants: "Your problem is easily solved. Just take the land. Don’t wait to be given It.” When civil war opened he forced the Government to arm the factory workers and the peasants. Said Caballero, "I would like to see every bricklayer go to work with his rifle slung on Ills shoulder. Then I know that nothing could exist in Spain except the will of the great mate of the Spaniards.”