AN UNPOPULAR WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 464, 31 July 1909, Page 4

AN UNPOPULAR WAR.

■ ♦ Madrid, July 28. In view of the spread of the anti-war fever in Spain, martial law has been proclaimed in Tarragona, Gerona, and Barcelona, where St. Paul’s Church and some schools have been burnt.

Nine soldiers and a corporal, who were ordered from Barcelona to Morocco threw their arms into the sea during the passage across, and were shot on arriving at Melilla.

The war is bitterly unpopular in Spain. Many of the reservists have fled to France. They declare that the war is being waged in the interests of speculators. Morocco, July 28.

During last Thursday's fighting near Melilla, fn Northern Morocco, a detachment of Spanish troops was surprised in a ravine and annihilated, losing four hundred men.

The Moors were concealed among the heights. Morocco, July 29.

The war between the Spaniards and the Moors at Melilla originated in the murder of lour platelayers who were working on the construction of a railway, to which the Riffs objected. Severe fighting has occurred in the vicinity of Melilla- General Pinto and two colonels were killed but the Moors were repulsed. The coin) at occurred on the outlying spins of Mount Gurugu. General Pin o’s force held these all day, de spite heavy fire, until the troops at t,v railway statr ns and at an advar.ce I pi.si had been reviclnalled. The Moors constantly renewed the attacks, r otwithstandir g a murderous artillery fire, which caused them enormous losses. The Spanish casualties were 200. Madrid, July 29. The revolutionary elements in Spain ate using the unpopularity of the Moroccan campaign to advance their purposes. King Allouso has signed a decree establishing martial law throughout Spain.