FIGHTING RAGES IN MADRID

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 143, 13 March 1939, Page 9

FIGHTING RAGES IN MADRID

Defence Council And Communists SAVAGE CONFLICTS IN STREETS Civilians Starving In Cellars By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received March 12, 10.30 p.m.) MADRID, March 12. Despite the republican claim that the Communists have surrendered, violent fighting continues in th& city. Bitter feeling raged in the fashionable north-eastern quarter and the entrances to the underground railway were scenes of savage conflicts.

The Communists are now machine-gunning the streets where any mass movement of troops is impossible. The republicans attacked the office of the newspaper “A.8.C.” in the hope of dislodging the Communists who also captured the secret police headquarters, and repeatedly assailed the Princesa Hospital. Republican artillery bombarded the Communist headquarters which vainly called for tanks by telephone. The defenders yielded after hours of fighting. The republicans then recaptured the Salamanca quarter and recovered a trench in the scarred north-eastern district.

Civilians are starving. Many were shot on the outskirts of the , city while attempting to escape. Most of them are remaining in the cellars not daring to join the food queues.

The Communists’ most spectacular loss in the fighting yesterday was the seventeen-story telephone exchange, which has figured in many accounts of bombardments of Madrid and has been further damaged in the latest encounters.

The conflict in the Plaza de Manuel Becerra, which is supposed to have been settled in favour of General Miaja, engaged all the available weapons on both sides and transformed the street into a shambles owing to fierce hand-, to-hand bayonet and hand-grenade encounters.

Fighting in Villages.

Minor conflicts continued all day yesterday in the villages of Hortaleza. bhamartin and Camillas, north and north-east of the capital. Defence Council troops drove out the Communists from positions in the eastern district of the city, taking 14,000 prisoners. x Colonel Casado, War Minister in the Defence Council, said in a broadcast: “Our patience is ended. We have no respect for those who are throwing life in Madrid into disorder, and repression is beginning, with necessary violence.” Meanwhile General Franco’s troops, entrenched on the opposite side of the city to Canallejas and Barajas, where the republicans are bombing redoubts, are fortunately inactive, apparently awaiting the outcome of the internecine struggle which is playing into their hands. WARNING TO FRANCO Damage To British Ships (Independent Cable Service.) LONDON, March 10. Following the warning by the Foreign Secretary, it is learned on reliable authority that Burgos lias been officially informed that Britain reserves the right to take any necessary action in the event of damage to British stops resulting from General Franco’s blockade of republican ports.

MIAJA TO SURRENDER TO FRANCO Mysterious Radio Report LONDON, March 10. A mysterious unconfirmed radio message from Madrid stated that the Communists were spreading the report that General Miaja would open the gates of the city to General Franco. Lisbon reports that a wireless message from Almeria announces that a fierce fight, took place in the broadcasting studio in which nine Communists were killed. FRANCO FREES MIAJA’S SON HENDAYE, March 10. General Franco has released General Miaja’s son after 12 months’ detention as a hostage and permitted him to rejoin his father in Madrid, whither he will possibly take proposals from General Franco.