WEATHER AND WAR

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 297, 30 November 1936, Page 5

WEATHER AND WAR

Torrential Rains An Ally Of Loyalists. Press London, Nov. 28. Torrential rains are 'transforming the trenches into canals amid swamps and have prevented operations at Madrid. Bad weather is the Government’s best ally, especially in preventing air raids. The chief obstacle to the rebel encirclement of outer Madrid, apart from .the Loyalist counter-attacks in the Talavera district, is the dogged tenacity of Colonel Mangada, who is holding the Escorial and threatening .the left flank of any rebel advance west and north-west of the capital. His overthrow must, precede any effective insurgent demonstration, and so the rebels are concentrating all available forces, including a complete motorised division, whose arrival is eagerly' awaited. A British delegation, representing all Parliamentary parties', after spending a week at Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid, has sent a message to ithe British Government urging immediate neutral action to save the inhabitants of Madrid. The delegation says it doubts whether the magnitude of the appalling catastrophe facing the civilian population is generally realised. More than a quarter of .the city has been partially destroyed and is uninhabitable, civilian casualties are heavy, starvation is already at work and epidemics seem inevitable. The Spanish Embassy at Paris announces the execution by’ Segovian rebels of Francisco Largo Valvo, -the 22-year-old son of Senor Largo Cabellero, leader of the workers, which is stigmatised as an unjustifiable reprisal.