CONFLICT IN SPAIN.

Wairarapa Age, 28 July 1936, Page 5

CONFLICT IN SPAIN.

HOPES OF REBELS FADING. MOLA’S MOVE ON MADRID CHECKED. ADVANCE FROM THE SOUTH ALSO BARRED. LONDON, July 26. Spain is divided between the opposing forces roughly as follows: The Government retains the whole of the south-east, and also the north-east between the coast and a line drawn from half-way across the Pyrenees to 50 miles east of Madrid, also the Bilbao area in the extreme north, while Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Cordora are among important towns under its control. The rebels hold the remainder of Spain, including Seville, the area around Gibraltar, and the whole of Spanish Morocco. The main areas of conflict or of recent conflict axe the mountain passes in the Sierra de Guadarrama. The

rebel losses in this area are reported to be 2000, while the Government losses have been heavy. Other danger points, in order of importance, are Saragossa, where a battle is hourly expected, Segovia, Seville, Albacete, and San Sebastian.

A sign of the Spanish Government’s confidence that the situation in Madrid and. neighbourhood is well in hand is the announcement that the Socialist militia will no longer be used as police, and that the regular police are resuming their duties.

Government forces captured Caspe, 100 miles east of Saragossa, which air squadrons are heavily bombing. It is reported that loyal submarines captured a rebel warship near Palma. The Government assures that only three important centres, Saragossa, Seville, and Oviedo are now in the rebels’ hands, but if Is reported from France that the rebels are massing in the far north for an attempt to capture the frontier town of Inin and prevent the loyalists importing arms. Thousands of well-armed Asturians surrounded Oviedo, and have issued an ultimatum to the rebels to surrender within 24 hours or they will be attxeked*

Spain to-day celebrated the feast of her patron saint, lago (Saint James). A bishop celebrated High Mass at Pamplona. Six thousand troops and police and 4000 civilians knelt in the public square and prayed for a revolutionary victory, after which volunteers, including many women, marched past as General Cabanellas took the salute. BEBELS IN DIFFICULTIES.

General Mola’s situation is much less favourable owing to a direct Government check to his advance across the Guadarrama range and loyalist successes near Burgos and Logrono, west of Saragossa, as a result of the advance of loyalist columns from Catalonia, where Colonel Sandina is exercising effective command. General Perez Farras, a loyalist commander, whose •troops are approaching Saragossa, demanded the surrender of the city, but the rebel General Cabanellas refused. The armies are expected to clash shortly.

General Mola’s hopes of subduing Madrid, whether by starvation or by a co-ordinated attack in combination with General Franco’s forces from the south and from the south-west, are growing fainter. Government troops bar General Franco’s way north in Albacete and Toledo. His additional Moroccans who were brought by ferry and aeroplane across the strait last night to Algecaras are believed to have been disorganised* by a bombing raid by loyalist aeroplanes, one of which was brought down at sea. The vanguards of General Mola’s two columns, which had respectively reached within 15 and 36 miles of the capital, have now been driven back into the province of Segovia, on which three Government eoltimns are advancing.

War correspondents visiting the rebel territory around Pamplona, in north-eastern Spain, report that waning enthusiasm is tempered by a growing conviction that at least a month must elapse before definite results can be achieved.

Deserters are crossing the French frontier in the midst of streams of refugees. Order at last has been restored in Barcelona, where President Luis Companys, having broadcast an appeal to citizens to refrain from further excesses, has approved a 40-hour week and increased the pay of the workers.

LADS AS MURDERERS. TERRIBLE STORIES TOLD BY REFUGEES. LONDON, July 26. Refugees from Malaga, who arrivd at Gibraltar on a British destroyer, state that they saw a hundred priests, Fascists,, and others shot down, chiefly by children between the ages of 14 and 17 years, wearing red shirts and carrying pistols, rifles, axes, and truncheons. Refugees at Marseilles are relating terrible stories of carnage and horror. They included Mrs Ruby Beach (cousin of the author Rex Beach), who landed from an American steamer. She said that during the fighting women continually incited men to exterminate their opponents and not to take prisoneta- She -added that she saw rebels burn a church, kill a priest, sever his arms and legs, and hang his body from a statue of the Virgin. French newspapers say that guerrilla warfare continues in the San Sebastian region. “L’lntransigeant” says that an Englishwoman refugee who arrived at Saint Jean de Luz from San Sebastian became insane after seeing her 12-year-old son shot because he refused to say whether Fascists were hiding in the hotel. While Spanish warships were shelling shiploads of Moorish troops who were being landed in the neighbourhood of La Linea and Algeciras, three shells fell on the southern end of Gibraltar. The Spanish firing endangered ships using the strait, and, accordingly, the British destroyer Beagle went out to patrol. The British, fearing an epidemic, ordered 7000 Spanish refugees to evacuate camps near the frontier. Flying-Officer Demin go Perez, who deserted from the rebels, says he took off from Melilla with Lieutenant Castro, ostensibly to bomb Granada and other Government towns. When over the Mediterranean they fought for a revolver, which he secured. He then threw out Castro. I?erez declares that the situation of the Moroccan rebels is desperate. The men obey the officers only because they are terrorised. The Government announces that the rebels have surrendered at Albacete. It claims to have brought down two rebel aeroplanes and that another deserted. The French Cabinet is reported to have discussed the questions of furnishing arms and munitions to the Spanish Government. Deputies who are usually well informed regarding Government policy appear to be sure that the Government is not prepared te intervene in Spain by authorising the supply of war material.