SPANISH REPRISALS.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 330, 3 July 1875, Page 3

SPANISH REPRISALS.

The following ghastly story of the military reprisals in Spain is told by a correspondent of the Times, writing from Estella on the 7th of April:— General Mendiry has at last carried out to the bitter end his oft-repeated threat of reprisals, and to-day eight unfortunate Alfonsist prisoners fell victims, not to Carlist cruelty, but to the barbarous system on which the Alfonsist authorities permit their “ contraguerrilleros ”to carry on the war. I cannot do better than send you a literal translation of the address of the distinguished Carlist chief to his soldiers on this necessary act of justice, which no one deplored more than himself : “Volunteers, —This morning there were executed eight prisoners, chosen by lot, in reprisal for the same number of our volunteers who, after surrendering under the promise of receiving quarter, were barbarously assassinated in San Martin de Unz by the enemy’s ‘ contraguerrillero,’ Tirso Lacalle. _ « Some time ago there would also have been shot, had not the clemency of his Majesty the King our sire (whom God protect) granted them pardon, eight other prisoners, in reprisal for a like number of volunteers assassinated by the same ‘ contragueirillero’ in Murillo del Cuende, in Larraga, on the high road to Tafalla, and in San Martin de Unz.

“ Public justice having been satisfied by the blood which has been shed, I wish to make some observations on the conduct of our enemies. If they walk in the path of dignity and honour ( noblcza ), we shall be ever, as it were, in their van, and shall carry on the war in a manner which befits the regular armies of a civilised nation ; but if they pursue the opposite path, we shall, without directly following them in their inhuman acts of cruelty, be driven by necessity and justice to wage a war without quarter. As a soldier, as a Spaniard, and as a man of honour ( caballcro ) I grieve deeply at the shedding of a single drop of blood away from the battle field, but at the same time I cannot, consent that my soldiers should be brutally assassinated by bands of abandoned ruffians whom the enemy patronises and admits into her bosom. “ Volunteers, let all your actions be inspired by the sacred motto of our banner, and thus, reposing confidence in your generals, and yielding obedience to your officers, we shall soon carry the struggle in which we are engaged to a successful end, and seat on the throne of his ancestors our own beloved Sovereign. “‘Viva la Religion!’ ‘Viva Espana !’ ‘ Viva Carlos VII, !’ “ Your General, Torcuato Mendiry. “ Estella, April 7, 1875.” The act of cruelty which led to this terrible reprisal was perpetrated a few days ago in the village of San Martin de Unz, a few miles from Tafalla. A small band of Rosas’s “partidas,” who had established themselves in the village, were coming out of church after hearing mass, when they were informed by a peasant that the village was surrounded by the Alfonsists. They immediately endeavored to cut their way through the eneray’s lines, and a sergeant with four men Aiccecded ; but the others, eight in number, finding themselves completely outnumbered, surrendered to a squadron of cavalry, after having first received a promise of quarter. No sooner, however, had the cavalry conducted their prisoners back to San Martin, than the “ contraguerrilleros’’ of the notoriously cruel Lacalle set upon them and massacred seven of them on the spot with their bayonets. The survivor escaped to a neighboring house, where he barricaded the door and determined to sell his life as dearly as possible; he was at last induced to surrender by the most solemn assurances that his life would be spared, but, on his opening the door, he was seized, the muzzle of a rifle was forced into his mouth, and his brains were blown out. General Mendiry, directly he heard of what had happened, addressed himself to General Quesada, the commander-in-chief of the Alfonsiat army, insisting upon satisfaction being given, and proposing that a joint

commission of the two armies should inquire into the circumstances and bring the guilty parties to punishment. Four or five days had been passed in the negociations, when Mendiry, seeing the enemy did not intend lo accept his proposal, determined to put into execution the stern law of reprisals. Last night orders were given to the authorities of the Bstella depot, where about 600 Alfonsist prisoners are located, to select by lot seven soldiers and one sergeant, who were to be prepared for execution the following morning. Lots were drawn, and soon after nine this morning the unfortunate men selected were marched out to the paradeground outside Bstella, each accompanied by a priest and holding a crucifix in his hand. The regiments of Navarre, Castile, and Aragon, quartered in and near Bstella, each sent one company to witness the execution, and a battery of artillery and a squadron of cavalry were likewise present. General Mendiry and his staff having arrived on the ground, the troops formed three sides of a square, and in the middle were placed, kneeling beside their confessors, the destined victims. The last moment had arrived, the priests were on the point of bidding a last farewell, when suddenly one of the prisoners, a Navarrese irregular, sprang to his feet and made a dash for the river, which was only about ten yards off. The guards immediately fired, and a ball struck the unfortunate man in the back. This, however, did notj stopi him. He staggered forwards, and, throwing himself into the water, struck out gamely for dear life. A second ball, however, put an end to his exertions, and sent him to the bottom to rise no more. After this terrible episode, trying alike to the executioners and the doomed, the last act of retaliation was solemnly performed, and seven more of poor Spain’s children were sent to an untimely grave; I called on General Mendiry this afternoon, and, from what I heard from him and what I read of the official correspondence on the subject, I am convinced that the General had no other course open to him, but to insist on the execution of the prisoners. The repeated acts of clemency of Don Cailos and himself were beginning to be looked upon with some slight feeling of dissatisfaction by the soldiers, who justly remarked, “If we are taken prisoners we are shot like dogs, but if we take any of the enemy prisoners they are well treated, supplied with necessary clothes, and receive the same rations as ourselves.” It is considered that this act of justice will not, in all probability, lead to any counterreprisals on the part of the Government, who must feel that they were in the wrong in not accepting General Mendiry’s humane proposal for a mixed commission, and that thus they were directly violating the terms of the convention to secure belligerent rights to prisoners and wounded, which their Minister of War, Jovellar, only signed a few weeks ago.