DEFENDERS REINFORCED

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 422, 1 May 1937, Page 5

DEFENDERS REINFORCED

MARCH ON BILBAO REBELS MAKE NO FURTHER ADVANCE German Bombers Attack Village Press Association —Copyright. Received May 1, 11.50 a.m. London, April 30. The rebels have made no further advance on the Bilbao front. The defenders are strongly reinforced with men and material. • The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent at Bilbao says that 22 bombers and six chasers, said to be German machines, attacked the village of Galdacano, but, owing to the scattered nature of the village, only 12 private houses were burned to the ground.

WAR ON CIVILIANS REHEASAL IN SPAIN An American View • The conflict in Spain to-day is the dress rehearsal of the next war (wrote W. El Courtney in a recent number of Collier’s). Here the common man can see whut is ahead, and dictators and war makers can test the latest weapons and methods of destruction In Spain purely military activities are not pureu d with vigo? by eifher side: there are comparatively few military casualties. Meanwhile men, women, and children have been toain by forthright execution an J by air raids, for war <r no v U u ex >u : se in miass hatre I, and its technique it- terrorism, adm’nister d by ilire3 mam weapoqs: radio, to drive the vpy.’ace mad with fear and despair; poison gas, and plane raids, to further t rrify and kill. In Spain the broadcasting transcends ’the din of artillery, says this writer—claims, boaets, threats, and stories of victories and atrocities for twenty-four hours of the day, every word designed to beat down the mental, emotional, and spiritual resistance of the c nemy. Red io in war is a devil’s welkin. Spain itself was the I r s t of European air powers, for she had only 150 planes, but presently every make of the besit German, Italian, Russian, and French planes were engaged in the war, manned by their own nationals. These pilots fly prudently; there t.ra few single air combats, nor do planes bomb, except casually, enemy barricades and trenches. They bomb I’-rks, squares, and markets, wherever non-combatants are likely- to be other cl. Whole districts of Madrid have been pounded to smithereens. It ‘took three days to control the flames when the smashed area was set on fire by incendiary bombs, and tl.ut was possible only because the rebel aviation did not follow up its advantage. Since 1914-18. In the World War 282 tons of bombs were dropped on England from German aircraft., To-day any major nation could s-end a single fleet to drop hat much and more in one raid, and while a great city coulidi not be deal royed or all its people killed, the lavoc would exceed Accuracy is not important to the bomb‘is, sine frightfulness and terrorisaion of civilians are their chief aims. That is why rebel bombers kept away ! from 4he fortifications and the antiaircraft ba'.t-ries in Madrid and bomb|ed the residential districts. That is why pursuit ships flew up the Gran Via and shabby Calle Jordan alike, machine-gunning the wrenches hud- I died in the doorways. “The work of the plan s in Spain within the modern conception of their usefulness,’’ a War Ministry official in Europe told this writer, “has been very gratifying. The casualty s and damage to morale, as well as to life 'and proper y, have,-in actual risk and loss, cost less than the most ardent of us anticipated.”