BEYOND LERIDA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1938, Page 7

BEYOND LERIDA

4> HOLD GAINED ON IMPORTANT POWER LINES LOYALISTS DETERMINED TO RESIST TO END. EMERGENCY POWERS TAKEN BY PREMIER. SARAGOSSA, April 7. General Franco’s troops, advancing in the valleys of Upper Aragon, captured Balaguer, 15 miles north-east of Lerida, and thus control the power lines mainly supplying Barcelona industries from the hydro-electric station at Capdella. The insurgents thereafter continued toward the Pyrenees. Another column scattered the defenders within three miles of Tremp, 30 miles north of Lerida. Nationalists from Morelia pressed the advance to within one mile of Tortosa.

A message sent from Barcelona on April 6 stated: The Republicans are preparing for a last stand in the mountains between the provinces of Lerida and Barcelona. Defences are being hastily built outside Lerida with the aid of volunteers and prison labour. At the most advanced points in the provinces of Castellon and Tarragona the insurgents are only a day’s march from the sea.

Farther east, along a front of 100 miles in Aragon, insurgents advancing from Lerida have reached a point 15 miles north-east of Lerida and 25 miles from the vital reservoir which supplies water power for Barcelona’s industries.

As a result of a Cabinet reshuffle, the Premier, Senor Negrin, has assumed almost dictatorial powers. He retains the Premiership and has taken over the defence portfolio. Two workers’ syndicates with a membership of 5,000,000 represented to the Government that they have pledged themselves to support the Republican Front. Senor Prieto, who fell foul of the Labour element of Senor Negrin, has withdrawn from political office. The Cabinet reshuffle means that

the workers are determined to resist to the end. It also means a victory for Senor Negrin’s policy of co-opting Communists. LOST DIVISION. FACING DEATH IN PYRENEES. LONDON, April 6. The Luchon correspondent of the “Daily Mail” reports that 4000 militiamen of the 43rd Spanish Red Division are lost in the Pyrenees and facing death from starvation and exposure. Many are believed to be only a few hours from the French frontier. French Mobile Guards are rushing to the heights to search for them.