FLEEING REFUGEES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 16 February 1937, Page 5

FLEEING REFUGEES

FIRED ON BY REBELS WOMEN AND CHILDREN KILLED. Tress Association Electric TeleeraDh— Conyrifihi LONDON, Sunday. The Valencia correspondent of "The Times” states that during the retreat from Malaga to Almeria rebel aeroplanes swooped down upon 40,000 heav-ily-laden men, women and children who were fleeing from the Fascist terror, and machine-gunned them, killing hundreds. The slaughter was intensified by the fire of rebel warships sailing parallel with the coast. Senor del Vayo, Spanish Foreign Minister, obtained these facts from three Ministers who returned frefm Almeria.

An unknown vessel bombarded Valencia at 10 p.m. on Sunday. Approximately 30 shells passed over the centre of the city, falling in outlying parts. The Government gunboat Lava replied, driving off the attacker. It is reported that 14 were killed and 30 injured.

Air battles are numerous in the Madrid area, seven rebel aeroplanes having been shot down in two days. Tho scene of to-day’s fiercest fighting was in the vicinity of Arganda, .ten miles south-east of Madrid, where the loyalists succesfully bombed and bombarded advancing rebel tanks and retained: their position. The West Park at Madrid, where normally nursemaids and children played, and couples, courted, is a maze of trenches, with,trees torn by grenades and rifle, fire. The Government’s fortifications are so complete that when the rebels burst into the University City fliey did not know the whereabouts of the eneiiiy ? s positions, which are concealed in a labyrinth of tunnels which are lit by .electricity. The rebels still occupy the cellars- and first floor of the battered- eight-story shell of one of the most modern hospitals in Europe, which they stormed weeks .ago. They do not venture into the: upper stories before nightfall. The adjacent cancer institute is a mass' of ruins. The no-mah’s-land beyond the barrier or sandbags is dotted with rebel corpses, victims of the last attack. Evidence at a mass trial at Madrid of 84 prisoners : charged with military rebellion at Cerro Rojo revealed that two battalions of the Foreign Legion consisting entirely of Irishmen are at present at Pinto, south .of the Jarama battlefield,

General Miaja, while complimenting them on their courage, has ordered the retirement of all women combatants from tho Madrid front line.

At Malaga the rebel authorities sentenced to death 38 so-called Communist bandits, passed life sentences on five others, and) sentenced two to 20 years’ imprisonment.

The Seville radio station asserts that, Communists killed 80,000 persons at JVlalaga..after the outbreak of hos; tilities, and that many women, children and aged people died of Hunger.

REPORTED BARGAIN.

GERMANY AND ITALY. LONDON, Monday. The "Daily Telegraph’s” Paris correspondent says.that diplomatic writers support statements that Signor Mussolini and General Goering agreed that Germany should reduce her assistance to tlio Spanish rebels, allowing Italy to secure them victory in return for Italy giving Germany a free hand in Czechoslovakia and predominance in the Danube valley.

In response for this, Germany will grant Italy priority in Spain and the western Mediterranean.

"LIFELINE OF MADRID.”

FURIOUS FIGHTING

(Received Tuesday, 10.40 a.m.) . i . : LONDON, Monday.

The .Spanish Government admits that Sunday’s battles for "the lifeline of Madrid A?, .Were; most intense, but claims that the* main highway to Valencia is still open, though subject to artillery fire. Fighting was intensified all day at .the Jarama River, with the rebels attacking tho Arganda bridge, which commands the highway. There was furioiis fighting on the Guadalajara front. The position was unchanged at nightfall/

General Dellaho claims that the insurgents crossed’ the Manzanares and. Jarama Rivers, and control the Arganda bridge, enabling Madrid to be completely besieged, so that it will be forced to surrender. The insurgents further ad* varieed towards Almeria, occupying Torrenueva, near Motril. The Perpignan railway, from France to Spain, on the eastern frontier, was cut when an insurgent ’plane flew over Portdou and dropped bombs on the line, which was destroyed for a considerable distance.