Bombing of Almeria

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 116, 2 June 1937, Page 5

Bombing of Almeria

— Presa Apan.-

PITIFUL SCENES Tlagrant Act of Aggression/ Says League Note GERMAN ALLEGATIONS

(By Telegraph

-Copyrishe.1

(Beceived 2,, 8.45 a.m.) LONDON, May 31. The Times' Almeria correspondent says the coast hatteries fired 70 shells, forcing the German ships to withdraw from thel shore. Some of the attackers were enveloped in smoke, believed to be the results of hits from the hatteries. Whea the cannonading began multitudes of panic-stricken people rushed intp the streeta. Their terror was iacreased by houses and walls crashing on aR sides and the nauseatiiig fumes from bursting shells. Many were injured hy falling dehris. A similar fate overcame those remain- » ing in- their houses.. i \ Numerous dead lie buried an the ruins, and portions of mutilated bodies can be aeen in the streets. it is fearad the deathroll, when complete, will be liigh. Four of the cbief streets sufl'ered heavily, some shells destroying three or four houses. The telephone and electric light systems were partially destroyed and the sixteenth-century cathedral badly damaged. Some of the shells were of 11-dnch calibre and 39 inches long. A Geneva message says that Senor del Vayo has informed the League that on Saturday afternoon two aeroplanes were reconnoitring rebel centres and at Ibiza were fired on by German warships. The Spanish aircraft retaliated, bombing the aggressor, which the Spanish Government lmmediately announced, whereas the German Government waited 24 hours to announce that the Deutschland had been bombed. The Note then declares that the bombardment of Almeria was a flagrant act of aggressiou and the greateat outrage against a sovereign state of the acts of aggression committed by tho German fleet since it intervened in Spain. It adds that in view of the exceptional gravity of the act decided on by Germany the Spanish Government, after long deliberation, also in view of the announcement that Germany is dispatching more warships to Spain. asks that this communication be transmitted to members of the League. British naval and military honours were aecorded at the burial of 24 of the Deutschland ratangs. British naval bands headed a cortege of 12 motorlorries conveying the coffins flanked by British and Gernian naval ratings as pall-bearers. The shadow of the Deutschland 's dead fell heavily aeross the celebrations to commemorate the ' Battle of Jutland, which the (jermans are taught to regard as the greatest naval victory in their history. 'Ihe naval detachment proceeding to Uqted den Linden to place a wreath on the war memonial in memory of the Deutschland 's losses marched without music. ltear-Admiral von Trotha, a Jutland veteran, addressing them, declared; "These seamen have been criminally uiurdered. ' ' Three days' mourning. haa been ordered in Germany. All flags are to be tlown at half-mast and decorated with crepe streamers. Meanwhile, the German newspapers reiterate tho allegation that Bolshevism is to blame for the bombing. They ask why it is always Fascdst vessels; — namely, Italian and German, which ara attacked. The keynote of official comment in' London and Paris is the necessity for keeping cairn. Tli^ Spanish Government observes similar restraint and declined to further comment beyond a statement recounting all the facts to the League. French newspapers, while hoping the incident is closed, regret that Germany showed a brutal and violent reaction which the Italians wisely avoided over the Palma bombing. Tht German Press indulges in diutribes against Bolshevism, but the tenor of the comments andicates tliat the official policy likewise is to use the soft pedal. -