SPAIN AND MOROCCO

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 29

SPAIN AND MOROCCO

THE FIGHTING AT MELILLA. MOORS DISPERSED. TERRIBLE SCENES. 1000 PRISONERS. MADRID. August 2. A Moorish chief named Elgafo, at the head of a strong body of Mezquita tribesmen, who are friendly to Spain, has started to fight, against the Rift's. Several squadrons of Spanish cavalry are being held in readines to support them. 1 Work is being resumed at Barcelona, •aid the trams are again running. August 6. The Government has suspended money payments in lieu 01 personal service in the army. MOROCCO, August 3. The Moors made a midnight attack, and tore up 100 yard'; of railway before reinforcements dispersed them. A balloon is reconnoitring the gorges and ravines at Gftrugn. The Matin's Melilla correspondent states that the Moors axe extraordinarily skilful ' in constructing shelters for sharpshooters. They dig hole*- and cover them with stores 'so that only a rifle barrel appear?, and they are able to fire almo.-t point-blank. Ten out of 100 Spanish troops were wounded, and only two had seen the enemy. August 4. A detachment of 600 Spaniards held a blofkhoiw-e all day on Monday against a large fox c of Moors, who' dispersed when a relief column appeared. j The Spaniards charged with great dash, cheering for " Spain and the King." J LONDON, August 3. The Catalonian Brigade at Melilla fought extremely well. General Marina reports that he will soon be in a position to take the offensive. I The Lo.idon Times' Madrid correspondent reports that the rising in Barcelona was organised with extraordinary secrecy and ability. A general strike v as decreed on Fiiday, and commenced on Monday, Barcelona being isolated by the evening. The strike movement in Madrid was nipped in the bud by the Government arresting J^rlej-ias and other Socialist leaders, and doing the Socialist headquarters. Ihe great majority of the strikers are lione.-t woiknien who objected to military expedition*. The Times' representative had an interview with Senov Moura. the Spanish Premier, who .*aid that in the Catalonian movement, which ended on Saturday, out of 900 rom mimes there were only bi'.turb antes in 15.

Mr Keir Hardie, speaking at Sutton, said that the sordid capitalists' war in Morocco justified the revolt in Barcelona.. August 5 Reuler's and other correspondents report that fierce fighting took place on July 25 between the gendarmes and police and the revolutionists outside Barcelona The Marist Monastery offered stoufc resistance. Three monks were shot. The mob destroyed five churches and convents in a few houre. During the night Barcelona was given over to the horrors of revolution. There was no gas or electricity in the streets, and a gang of incendiaries, including women, carried torches, bundles of straw, paper, hatchets, and petroleum, and rushed from church to church and from convent to convent. The next afternoon they sacked a number of goldsmiths' shops. The fathers and pupils of the Jesuit monastery at Saa-ia expelled the rioters for three days by a steady rifle fire until the artillery relieved them. After burning a convent at Slan Jeroninu* the revolutionists disinterred a number of corpses and carried them in a procession. They tied ropes to the embalmed bodies of nuns and dragged them through the streets. There are now 25,000 soldiers iv Bare** lona. August 6. The Daily Chronicle's correspondent at Barcelona, telegraphing through Capa Cerebere, Southern France, says that thera are 1000 prisoners in the Montjuich fortress, Barcelona, most of whom are Aupes. These include women and boys. Since the leading revolutionists ha* 8 escaped the court-martial has been sitting all day, and rioters taken red-handed or smelling of petroleum or showing traces of gunpowder are found guilty and shot in batches a' few hours later The Daily Express's correspondent re* ports that 160 people have been shot since July 31 by firing squads of 40 infantry in the courtyard of the fortress in the presence of the garrison. The arrests continue owing to some of the condemned accepting a respite in return for giving the authorities the namei of the revolutionists. VIENNA, August 5. Don Jaime, son of Don Carlos, remains in Vienna. He states that he will only return to Spain at the head of an army, to restore peace, or in the event of King Alfonso being dethroned