CORRESPONDENCE RUGBY REPRESENTATIVES. WAR IN SPAIN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 220, 17 August 1937, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE

RUGBY REPRESENTATIVES.

WAR IN SPAIN.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —With reference to the Manawatu Rugby representative team, there is a player with stiong claims to recognition which so far this season have been completely overlooked by the selector. I refer to the centre threequarter of the Kia Ton team. This young player in two seasons has come from fourth grade football to senior grade, and the line form that he has shown all the season was climaxed in the last game of the competition, when he, scored the “sensational” try that gave Kia Toa the championship. Surely, sir, it was not’too much to expect that tlic selector would have given him a tryout, at least in one of the earlier representative gamesg,.However, it is not too late yet, and nifty it',nob be too much to hope for that the selector will give this player a chance at least to prove his claims. Quite a large number' of Rugby followers would like it that way-and will lie disappointed if the .selector continues to pass over one with better claims to inclusion in the representative team., than some perhaps who are already iu.it- —1 am, etc., ' HOPEFUL.

(To the. Editor.) Sir, —In laet night’s- “Standard” there appeared a letter from the very democratic Spanish Relief Committee, a reply to the New Zealand Welfare League’s letters of squib'! days diet ore. Personally, I thought the-’League’s letters very fair-minded and letters which only asked that both 'sides be given a docent hearing. However, the Relief ! Committee does not agree with tliis appeal for fair-mindedness. The Rebel Committee’s idea of a* democratic hearing is to let only one side speak—its i side. The.Spanish'Relief Committee asserts that papers were found oil prisoners of tne Reds! instructing the Nationalists (Franco’s forces) to exterminate Red -workers and leaders. Certain men in the Rod forces, lull of hatred in the extreme, were roaming the streets of many Span.sli towns some months prior to the present uprising. Time, the well-known and highly respected New York paper, asserts "that dozens of people were shot) down like cattle, because they were Rightists or Catholics, and otten merely for being gentlemen. Citizens were attacked in the stieets and houses and shops of 11011-Leftists pillaged. Eleanor Tennant, an eye-witness of scenes' of horror behind the Red lines, says: “If an Englishman saw his child seized by the legs and its bead bashed against a wall, what would he do? Hundreds of Spanish children havu suffered this fate. If an Englishman saw his daughter of nine outraged in the street, what would ho do?” Certainly not pardon them and be very democratic. The city of Bilbao, in a state of turmoil and terror /whilst occupied by the Beds, has now returned to normal. Franco line an arlh.v of men following him, rebuilding and repairing the wreckage, mostly deliberate incendiarism, wrought by the Democratic Communist hordes. The Herald (Melbourne) relates that after the capture of Bilbao 400 shock police, certain to be executed for their atrocities, fled to Santander.-The remainder laid down their arms and joined the Nationalist forces with great alacrity. The Spanish Relief Committee asserts that 'Moscow has 110 hand in the present conflict. It laments the fact that the Reds cannot obtain armaments, that Russia is rot supplying them, and yet they have had, according to cables, sweeping victories against the powerfully equipped Gorman and Italian and rebel forces. Aro they good with ’bare hands? How do they bold out in Madrid and bow did they hold ‘‘impregnable” Bilbao for so iong? How does the Spanish Relief Committee avoid this? “General Kleiber (a German), late leader of the International Brigade (Reds), composed of over 36,000 Russians and French, declared that orders to destroy the past in Spain have been faithfully carried -out”- (Spanish Journey). The London Times is a very reliable source of information, unbiassed and worlcl-renowncd, and not to be scoffed at.by Red supporters, as is their usual manner 011 the mention of any authority quoted by the other side. On March 3, 1937, it reported that 900 of the ligst buildings of Malaga had been completely destroyed and various private persons attacked and massacred. La Metropole computed Government successes from cables received at various times:—l,soo,ooo kilometres of ground taken, which is three times the area of Spahi; they have killed or wounded 2,500,000 men. captured 345,000 prisoners, taken 415,000 cannon, 775.000 machine-guns, and shot clown 56,779 ’planes. They have moreover captured Huear.a 26 times, Toledo 11 times, and Oviedo 22 times. There can’t be much more of these towns left to cap* ture. Spain must he now defined as . ‘ ‘an area of country covered with mangled ’planes, several times depopulated, and covered with dead outlies.” All done by the Loyalists without imported armaments ? To illustrate the absurdity of the Rea claims, one can cast his mind back for some weeks past and reckon up how thousands upon thousands of tons of shells have been reported to liave dropped upon Madrid. This city must now be a mountain of spent bombs several hundreds •of feet high. Thera shells have very peculiar properties, being lucky ones for the Red, soldiers. They always hit civilians and “poor sweet innocent little children” to use the Spanish Relief Committee’s own words.

Roy Wilson Howarl. American journalist, asked the Red Government (ho does not say which duly elected Government he asked: there have been several since the war began) what they stood for. He had to wait some time for an answer and “wiseacres” predicted the answer would be, “We stand for democracy.” Hitler,l Stalin, Mussolini, Neville Chamberlain, Hon. A. Hamilton, Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, RoosOvelt and Bela Knn all stand for democracy. So why not Caballero and the Spanish Relief Committee? It is apparently an elastic word. In conclusion, allow mo to apologise for having taken up so much of your valuable space, and to thank you for vour kindness on the excellent and impartial way in which you publish letters submitted to vour paper.—l am, etc.. JUSTICE.

August 17, 1937