BILBAO'S APPEAL FOR AID

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 131, 19 June 1937, Page 5

BILBAO'S APPEAL FOR AID

-Per Press Association.-

(By T-eleffranli—

-Copyright),

(Eeeeived 39, 1.0 p.m,) . LONDON. June 18. The Basque delegate of the Basqup Goverjimeiit at London has receiyed a message from Bilbao emphasisiug' the ruthlessness of the rebels bpmbar4w defeupeless fugitives pn the Santander road, which oonduct is more indefensible because there .are np tropp moveme»t$ on this road. Ten thousand tons of high explosive ^jhells have fallen on Bilbao in 2d hours, infiicting casualties to non-combatants beyond computation. A woman who lOSt her children in the darkness found their corpses riddled by machine-gun bullets, just before a shell biew her to pieces. "We appeal to humanitarians in all civiliged countries to alleyiato the suffering and terror of these helpless innocents, ' ' states the report. The Manchester Guardian's Bilbao correspondent says: "There has heea nothing .more ghastly in the conrse of any war than the guns and bombs of a foreign enemy decimating the refngees heeing to Santander where the pitiable fugitives nerves are torn to shreds by daily bombing, "Pifteeq I kels, flying low, appeared when the head of the refugee colunrn reached Irauregui. The fugitives threw themselyes flat, but the airmen mercilessly machine-gunned and bombed thgm, Ifillittg and wounding -women, children and old men, sweeping np and down the road for 2| hours with their mereiltss fire."