EFFICIENT FORCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 43, 19 January 1938, Page 10

EFFICIENT FORCE

3.15 P.M. EDITION.

LOYALIST INFANTRYMEN. OBSERVATIONS IN SPAIN. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Received January 19, 1.42 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 18. Tlio Daily Telegraph’s Teruel correspondent reveals an iminense increase m the Spanish Loyalists’ fighting power. He adds that, firstly, they have shown they are a really efficient military machine in operation, displaying discipline and manoeuvring capacity which even the most sanguine observers did not expect six months ago, an outstanding feature being the superiority of the Loyalist infantrymen, not only in shock troops. The result of the Teruel conflict indicates that, the fiercest fighting of the campaign can be expected in the spring. The result will depend on the infantrymen. General Franco, tbo correspondent adds, found the tooth of the Teruel (Muela) and broke the line, but his infantry failed him because lie used numbers of half-trained soldiers—a strange state of affairs after eighteen months of warfare.

Significance attaches to the Loyalist humanitarianism and discipline in taking a town containing 14,000 civilians. Admittedly a priest and civilians were shot, but contrariwise 20,000 persons, including soldiers, were evacuated in orderly fashion. There was some smallscale looting, as a result of which arrests were made.