GRAVE PLIGHT OF MADRID

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 375, 5 March 1937, Page 5

GRAVE PLIGHT OF MADRID

FOOD POSITION

SERIOUS RIOTS

German Ambassador Supports Franco.

Press Association —Copyright. London. March 4. The grave plight of Madrid, which is indicated by the rationing of bread, is emphasised by the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent in an uncensored, ditpatch from Valencia .after visting the capital. "The food position is tragic,” he says’. “1 saw two serious riots both caused owing to bread shops selling ouit after 250 people had waited' for eight hours. Food is so pitifully scant that Madrid is bound to collapse from hunger if the insurgents surround it.” It is claimed that Government forces crossed the Tagus, entered Toledo and seized a district near the Alcazar, also that other Government forces surrounded Oviedo and Talavera.

A Salamanca message says that General Faupel, the German Ambassador, presenting his credentials to General Franco, said Herr Hitler follows General Franco’s l liberating struggle with warm sympathy. Tn a reply to a question in the British House of Commons regarding the prospects of mediation in Spain, Mr R. A. Eden, Foreign Secretary, said the question «.s to whether His Majesty’s Government can take any steps to provide a basis of negotiation between the contending parties is constantly being considered) in the light of developmets. Up to the present they had received no indicaion that either party Was prepared to consider mediation of any nature.