The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-14
World Front
BY HARRY CANNES


MO ONE knows a genus
N atrocity better than the
German Nazis, and when
their experts declare that ths
reports of fiendish acts sup.
posed to have been commit
ted by Spanish revolutionists
are false, that is indeed news.
At the height of the fighting in
Asturias, the fascist press in Ma
drid printed atrocity stories whole
sale, among which were the usual
reports of the raping of nuns, burn
ing Of priests, etc. The German
Nazi press was not behind hand in
blazoning these lies across its
pages in order to discredit Commu-
nists and Socialists. On October
30, however, the Nazi "Frankfurter
zeitung" published dispatch from
its Madrid correspondent mot, Of
course, in as conspicuous a place as
it had published the previous atro-
city reports, which read as follows:
"a typical example of the effects
Of war psychosis' is furnished by
the report seized upon abroad and
widely commented on, to the effect
that rs or 80 children-relations Of
the gendarmerie troops-had had
their eyes put out. The anti-repub-
lican press contrived to keep the
whole population at high pitch of
excitement for some time with this
atrocity fairy tale, which awakens
recollections of the calumnies to
which Germany was exposed during
the great war. The very day and
hour when the unhappy children
were to arrive in Madrid was actu-
ally announced by these papers.
The children were awaited in vain,
and from that time EDWARDS there
has been no further mention Of
them. Other papers, which pub
lished number of reports on ale
legged acts Of vengeance against po-
lice troops, have since backed out OF
what were obviously the imaginings
of hysteria. Nor is anything more
heard of the nuns once reported to
have been raped, or dragged by the
hair through the streets behind mo-
tor lorries.
THE press and its correspond
ents, spreading all these fantastic
tales, have failed to bring proof Of
any of them. All mention has been
dropped of the priests alleged to
have been martyred and burned
alive-only Fl Debate, the leading
organ of ecclesiastical circles, gives
today the name of a priest about
whom all signs go to show that
these assertions apply to him. Many
of the clergy about whom the Wild
est rumors have been circulated,
have meanwhile returned safe and
sound to their homes"
DUT now we learn of number Of
ID children who did arrive when
scheduled to arrive And they are
the children of workers who were
executed or imprisoned for fighting
against fascism. On October %, 81
workers children arrived at Palen-
cha from Grade. Ali of them were
left entirely without parents, and
we're starving to death. They range
from three to ten years Of age.
Now, on the same day the Nazi
correspondent was wiring his paper
in Berlin admitting the atrocity
stories against priests, nuns and po-
lice we're all lies, Jay Allen, Madrid
correspondent of the Chicago Daily
News, cabled his paper of the
frightful tortures, murders and rob-
berries committee against the revo-
lutionists by the Spanish Foreign
Legion in Ovieda.
When it came to the most brutal
stories, the Daily News comments
parenthetically as follows: Censor
at this point in the transmission of
this dispatch cuts in with warn
ing that the Madrid correspondent
of the Chicago Daily News be care
full as to what he said"
MIR. ALLEN got his story from 3
iu friend of his, native of Owl
eda, and we quote only part of his
tale:
There were many corpses piled
for days. While the Moors were
searching, man with a four year
old child in his arms ran out of the
house. The Moors fired. He hid
among the corpses. A Moor came
up and shot him. So on up
the street of tragedy of ten houses
within 900 feet I found not one
without marks of the passing
through Asturias of these mercena-
ries, Moors recruited to fight
against their own people and riff
raft Of all nations who found asy-
lum in the Foreign Legion. A
ROBUST woman of 40 comes to me,
tears in her eyes. She says her
name is Delfina del Vale, sister
of Vincente del Vale, who was shot
dead.
My brother was an honest man
and took no part in politics. she
says. He is a cider merchant and
we had in the house 1880 pesetas
to buy his fall stock. The Moors
took every cent of it.
"She wept, and then, getting her.
self under control, said with calm !:
I'll go to Jail for this, but take
down what say If there is an
other revolutionary movement in
Asturias I myself will take a gun
and I'll fight until the last Moor Is
vanquished.
Why said an old man now
alone, should these people come
here and destroy what little faith
we have left in God and his laws?'
| Here Is the situation from CAPT.
talist sources biased in favor of cap
italist rule, and certainly not hos
file tn ia SciSn1 Tho Sroyish iaile