The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-10-09
MADRID IS READY
 FOR GRIM SIEGE
Continued from Page D

Ihere VIII pc Q complete placKout of lights.
 Shoemakers, bricklayers, clerks, taxicab drivers were sent shivering to the capitals new concrete forti- fications, dugouts, trenches, machine gun emplacements, to remain there, eating and sleeping at their posts, until the fight is ended.
 The military situation:
 The insurgents are driving in re- lentlessly from northwest, west, southwest and northeast. The big gest drive of all, from the direct south, will start at any hour.
 The insurgents have taken i'm. portant territory on the southwest. ern and western fronts. On the Santa Cruz De Retamar front, on the Maqueda- Madrid highway, they are B miles awoy. On the Toledo front they are 37 miles away, on the Navalperal front to the west 37 miles awoy. Roughly, the entire rebel line is in ring in 8 radius of miles around the city = A ring with wide break in it, however, for the east over wide arc is clear.
 But the siege of Madrid has start ed and it can not end until the 1n- surgents have taken the capital or have been stopped definitely and completely.
 There is no despair. But there is apparent a determination to fight to a finish in the knowledge that ii Madrid is lost, there goes with 1t everything for which millions or men have fought for years. in pol1- tics and in one previous revolution. Formation of the emergency de- fense committee was a development of great importance. It was ef- dected by representatives Of the popular front coalition parties, oi the socialist and anarchist labor unions, of the municipality of Ma drid. of the national militia, of the Province of Madrid, and Of the syndicalist party.
 The comimttee announced lts own institutions in manifesto thai warned men, owmen and children that there must be iron discipline behind the lines the lines that already are being dug in the city streets = and warned the men m the defense force that absolute obedience is necessary"
 "The situation is sufficiently serl- ous to necessitate new precautions and energetic measures" 1t was ex- plained, "to convert Madrid into an impregnable bulwark." It contn- ued:
 'aThe hour of the test has arrived, the manifesto proclaimed. It IS no longer they shall not pass It must be death before retreatP Defend- CTS of liberty, the mothers of the fallen demand vengeance for theif children. You cannot fail them because you represent the peopN and because you are Spaniards. :,
 The nightly blackout was ordered in fear of airplane bombing raios But the curfew, from which no one but members of the armed forces are exempted, is due to the threats of rebel leaders that thouSands oi fascists, under cover in the city. are ready to rise and try to seize power. Newspapermen on all nigns duty will have to remain in tneH offices or at the telephone excnangS during the curfew hours.
 The food supply is sufficient, ana authorities are confident they can maintain a siege of six months II necessary as regards food and water. There is ample pure water, but there is a shortage of coal and other 1uel during the present cold wave.
 The rebels are expected at any time to try to cut off the last raA- road communication and then the capital will be isolated except for the highway east to Valencia.
 The loyalists are retreating at various sectors. But it is insisted that they are retreating by order. to fall back on the strong lines nearer the copital, and that there IS no rout. News of the fall of Oviedo in the north, or of some other vic- tory, would put new heart into men who say they are ready to die to keep out the fascist attackers.