ASSASSINATION PLOT

Evening Star, Issue 22445, 16 September 1936, Page 9

ASSASSINATION PLOT

LATEST DEVELOPMENT IN SPAIN THREAT TO GOVERNMENT LEADERS DRASTIC PURGE OF NAVY Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright MADRID, September 15. (Received September 16, at 12.15 p.m.) The police have discovered a, plot to assassinate Senor Azana, Senor Caballero, Senor Prieto, La Passionaria, and General Mangada (commander on the Somosierra front). The plot is alleged to have been organised by a former Communist, who is now a Fascist leader, Manuel Mateo. The scheme was financed by Jorge Loring, a nephew of the noted airman, accomplices being Juan Llovet and Santos Aranda. The two last-named have already been imprisoned. The assassination was delegated to eight men, who came to Madrid from Malaga and Valencia with false passports. A number have been arrested. A drastic purge of the Spanish navy resulted in the dismissal of 2,585 officers. A Government pilot, Fenix Urtuhi, outnumbered by three rebel planes in an air fight, drove straight into an opponent. Both planes crashed in flames. Urtubi was incinerated. The rebel pilot descended by means of a parachute and was taken prisoner. A Government plane brought down an insurgent machine intact at Asmara, near Saragossa, capturing both occupants. It was one of a squadron endeavouring to provision the besieged insurgent city of Huesca by dropping tins of meat, hard bread, and ice, but most of the packages have fallen in the Government lines. PROGRESS OF THE FIGHTING SIETAMO A MASS OF RUINS. LONDON, September 15. (Received September 16, at 12.35 p.m.) The Barcelona correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ says Sietamo, which, after changing hands several times in the loyalist advance to Huesca, fell to the Government on September 12, and is a mass of ruins. The majority of the 400 rebel defenders were killed. Refugees from Huesca report that when Government planes bombed the town 150 men, women, and children were taken from their homes and executed in the public square by order of Colonel Solans, whom the rebels, who were quarrelling among themselves, later executed for incompetence. The Casablanca correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ says Rene Bru, a newsreel operator, arrived by steamer from Tangier, and was arrested by the insurgents for filming incidents after the capture of Anandaleja. General Badajoz says lie filmed 1,000 prisoners in the bull ring at Anandaleja who were awaiting execution- Bru was arrested on returning to Seville, believed to be as a result of denunciation by jealous colleagues. He was threatened with death, hut his firm sent by air judiciously cut copies of his films, whereon he was released.

Urtubi, the Government pilot, was the pilot who solo looped the loop and tipped out a rebel officer.