BETRAYAL OF MADRID

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 29, 28 October 1937, Page 14

BETRAYAL OF MADRID

Details of Conspiracy LONDun, September 29. The key to the plot to betray Madrid to General Franco was a telegraph wire from the capital into insurgent territory. This line was to be put through by Raimurdo del Pino, a man who had been dismissed from the telegraph service and had secured employment at the Argentine Embassy. In addition to Pino, the leaders in the conspiracy, according to a list issued by the authorities in Madrid and telegraphed by the correspondent of the Times, were: — Manuei Assensio, merchant, of Chilean nationality; Jesus Cornejo, naval officer and brother of the former Minister of Marine; Manuei Pita, keeper of a lottery shop in the contre of Madrid; Luis Eseudero, engineer; Juan Sabda, a soldier ait Artillery Headquarters, and Daniel Rios and Luis Salsova, troop leaders. Eseudero has been concealed at his home for six months. Cornejo, whom the police had often tried to arrest, had his hiding-place beneath the bed of a paralysed man. The object of the conspiracy was threefold: (1) To enlist persons in all branches of the Administration who were ready to co-operate within and seize the departments; (2) to organise a body called "The White Falange," constituted mostly from refugees at the Embassies; (3) to subvert the allegianct of police, Bepublican guards and military and form a force similar to thal which delivered Santander to the ingurgents,