FEVER OF LOYALTY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 January 1939, Page 5

FEVER OF LOYALTY

DISPLAYED IN BARCELONA SCENES BEHIND THE FRONT. TOWNS SAVAGELY BOMBARDED BY REBELS. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) BARCELONA, January 16. The city is seething with patriotic fervour. There is tremendous activity everywhere. Newly mobilised troops parade amid scenes of intense emotion. The city is placarded with slogans: “To the last man and the last shot”; “Catalonia will never be Italian.”

A special correspondent who visited the Catalan front says the bombardments of towns behind the front exceeds all he personally has seen in the past two years. Tarragona, Valls and Reus were savagely bombarded and nearly destroyed.

The Republican General Miaja has opened a new offensive in the Brunete sector, a few miles west of Madrid, in an effort to relieve pressure on both Madrid and Catalonia, but rain and sleet are reported to be hampering the operations. General Miaja hopes to cut off the rebel salient along the Toledo highway.

The Republicans admit that they have assumed the defensive on the Estremadura front, but claim to have repulsed rebel attacks with heavy losses against the heights dominating Penaroya.

REBEL BOAST WILL CAPTURE BARCELONA WITHIN A MONTH. LOYALISTS USING OLD GUNS. LONDON. January 16. “We shall capture Barcelona within a month,” boasted the rebel General Kendelan after the occupation of Tarragona yesterday. General Franco’s armies are at present converging from three points in the coastal regions and

are only 33 miles from the city.

A Republican communique in Barcelona admits the loss of Tarragona, and declares that the troops have been ordered to fall back and form a new line to the east of the town. The high command has appealed to volunteer suicide squads to stem the advance till the defences are completed. The special correspondent of the “Daily Herald.” referring to the superiority of General Franco's artillery, says that the guns of one Republican battery were made in 1886 and that another is composed of Russian field pieces made in 1910.