ISSUE STILL IN DOUBT.

Wairarapa Age, 25 July 1936, Page 5

ISSUE STILL IN DOUBT.

balancTswaying. INSURGENT COLUMNS MOVING ON MADRID. LEVY IN MASS PROCLAIMED. MADRID, July 23. Though the balance is swaying slightly in favour of the Government, Spain still awaits the outcome of battles which will decide its destiny. Thte Government has entrusted the conduct of its campaign to Senor Pozas, Minister of the Interior, who reports relief of the pressure from the northwards upon Madrid owing to the loyal forces dispersing the vanguards of the rebel columns advancing on the capital from Avila, Segovia, and the Somosierra Pass, on the Sierra de Guadarrama, adjacent to the Buitrago Heights. This, however, may be an indecisive skirmish. The main columns under General Mola, the report of whose death was incorrect, are on the road to Madrid from Segovia, Burgos, and Saragossa, in the north, supported by detachments under Antonio de Rivera, son of the former Dictator. Victorious loyalist troops are pushing forward to Avila, north-west of Madrid, and also to Segovia, in order to intercept one of General Mola’s columns marching on the capital. The Government has proclaimed a levy in mass, recalling the French Revolution, and tens of thousands of volunteers are pouring out of Madrid to give battle to the rebels. The correspondent of “L’lntransigeant,” after a flight over Madrid, described the deserted city, and with four churches and a convent on fire. Meanwhile the rebel leader, General Francho, who apparently landed in southern Spain, is about to lead 10,000 troops northwards on Madrid, where numbers of rebel officers and men have been executed by machine-gun fire and buried in a common grave. A Catalonian force consisting of regulars, Civil Guards, workers, and militia, all adequately armed, left Barcelona for Saragossa aboard lorries and armoured cars with an escort of aircraft. Meanwhile the rebel defenders at Saragossa are replying to bombing aeroplanes with anti-aircraft and machine-gun fire. Mr. Rowland Winn, of the ** Daily Telegraph” staff, son of Lord St. Oswald, who was imprisoned in Madrid, has been released. NORTHERN AREAS AFLAME. LONDON, July 23. The northern districts in Spain are still aflame, and fighting continues at San Sebastian. Loyalists consider that any form of reprisals is justified by the revolutionaries’ employment of Moorish troops in the southern invasion. In the southern' arena, which is still of great strategic importance, the Government forces entered Cordoba and quelled the revolt. A rebel aeroplane aimed two bombs at the Bland Line steamer Gibel Dersa at the entrance to Tangier Harbour, and the British destroyer Whitehall responded with three warning shots. General Kinderline, chief of the rebel air force, went to Gibraltar from Ceuta and apologised on behalf of General Franco to the British authorities for the bombing incidents involving Gibraltar and British merchant ships. The rebels maintain complete control of Spanish Morocco, while in the west they still hold Salamanca and have captured Badajoz, the scene of one of the Duke of Wellington’s famous victories in the Peninsular War. Captured rebel leaders at Barcelona have been imprisoned aboard the steamer Uruguay, which has been requisitioned by the Government for that purpose. Tales of atrocities in Barcellona which are told by refugees reaching Marseilles bear every sign of panic-stricken exaggeration. It is established, however, that most of the churches are charred ruins. Clubs and monarchist houses were sacked. Four priests were killed, one who was caught with a rifle being burnt alive in his own church. Women and girls stood outside another church and laughed while men demolished the statues of saints with a mallet. The casualties are estimated at 700 killed and 3000 wounded. The People’s Olympic Games, organised as a rejoinder to the German Olympic Games, have been abandoned, but 4000 foreign athletes, despite recent escapes, remain stranded.

STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY IN SPAIN. COMPLETE VICTORY CLAIMED BY GOVERNMENT. REBELS ALSO CONFIDENT. LONDON,, July 23. The Spanish Government has issued what is becoming a stereotyped daily claim to complete victory, but independent observers feel that the issue is stifl doubtful. General Franco, the rebel leader, inspires unbounded confident, and his supporters of the Right emphasise that he would never have let himself be implicated in the revolt if he was not certain of success. The Government’s position is stronger in southern Spain, where the antiCatholic and anti-capitalist feeling has long been bitter. The rebel generals appear to have rather more than half the regular army behind them, but the Government, with a majority of the air force and navy, has also the advantage of the artillery, which has remained faithful, even in the north, bombarding the rebels at various points along the coast, especially the key points of San Sebastian and Irun, where the rebels appear to be conducting a hopeless resistance. A Paris message states that it is estimated that the total killed since the revolt is over 20,000. A Government summary of the situation claims that Seville is the only stronghold remaining in the hands of the rebels in the south. General de Llano has fled by air to Cadiz. The Prime Minister declares that the situation is improving hourly and that the rebel forces in the north will be overcome to-day. BRITISH SHIPS BOMBED.

The Acting Governor of Gibraltar has protested to General Franco against his permitting rebel ’planes to fly over Gibraltar contrary to the international convention.

A number of bombs dropped from Spanish aeroplanes when flying off Tarifa exploded near the British destroyer Wild Swan, which returned the fire and returned to Gibraltar. It appears that the Wild Swan fired at the aeroplanes because they were endangering the P. and O. liner Chitral. Britain has made a protest against indiscriminate bombing, and threatens retaliatory action if it is continued. Britain and France have jointly drawn the attention of Spain to possible difficulties if Tangier is used as a base for action by the Spanish fleet.