BATTLE FOR MADRID

Evening Star, Issue 22452, 24 September 1936, Page 11

BATTLE FOR MADRID

COMMENCEMENT RECOGNISED INITIAL GOVERNMENT SUCCESS FIIHTING KHAR OVIEDO Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright MADRID, September 23. It is widely recognised that the actual battle for Madrid has begun. Government forces were successful near Oviedo and defeated a rebel column from Avila, which was attempting to drive a wedge between the loyalists on the Guadarrama Range and the Tagus Valley, but the insurgents are making a most desperate effort between Santa Olalla and Torfijos, where, following earlier rebel successes, the Madrid War Office announced late to-night that the insurgents were repulsed with heavy loss, including the destruction of a Moroccan detachment. TORRIJOS OCCUPIED REBEL SUCCESS REPORTED . MADRID, September 23. General Franco states that the insurgents occupied Torrijos after a violent attack, assisted by aeroplanes. The Government troops are retreating to Toledo Subsequently aeroplanes flew over the Alcazar, announcing victory and encouraging the survivors to continue the resistance until the arrival of General Tagues’s column in 48 hours. URUGUAY'S STEP . SEVERS RELATIONS WITH SPAIN NEW YORK, September 22. According to a ‘ New York Times ’ despatch from Montevideo, Uruguay has formally severed diplomatic relations with Spain on the ground that the Madrid Government is unable to guarantee the lives and property of foreigners. Three sisters of the Uruguayan Vice-Consul at Madrid have been assassinated by Red militia men. AN ITALIAN PROTEST ROME, September 23. Italy has protested to the Catalan Government . because Communists searched Consul-general Rossi, though he was immediately released unharmed. FUNDS FROM MOSCOW MOSCOW, September 23. A' second appeal throughout the nation to aid the Spanish loyalists resulted in the collection of £284,000. SEVERAL ARRESTS ANTI-FASCISTS' ACTION PERPIGNAN, September 23. (Received September 24, at 10.30 a.m.) The Anti-Fascist Committee at Puigcerda has arrested a French business man, M. Fortuny, a French newspaper woman, Jacqueline Caillou, and the Italians Pasquale Daliga and Giovanni Passant on charges of facilitating the secret passage of Italians to Spain and fraudulently exporting capital. EX-MEMBER OF CABINET EXECUTED MADRID, September 23. (Received September 24, at 10.5 a.m.) Salazar Alonzo faced the firing squad in the model prison. His eyes were not bandaged at his own request, and he himself ordered the riflemen to fire, then fell dead. [A previous message stated: An exmember of Cabinet, Salazar Alonzo, an outstanding Fascist, was sentenced to death after trial for participation in the present revolt, also in the Asturias rising in 1934.] BRITISH-OWNED RAILWAY PROTEST AGAINST SEIZURE. LONDON, September 23. (Received September 24 at 10.30 a.m.) The Foreign Office has protested to Madrid against the workers’ seizure of the British-owned Spanish Great Southern Railway, the British manager and accountant of which were obliged to leave the country. ANDORRA'S DEGISI3II PERPIGNAN, September 23. (Received September 24, at 11.5 a.m.) The Council of the General Assembly of Andorra, the Pyrenean State between France and Spain, with an area of 306 square miles, under the joint suzerainty of the French President and the Spanish Bishop of Urgel, with a standing army of seven men, decided by 12 votes to 11 not to seek French aid in the event of an anarchist invasion.