Evening star., 1937-06-14
CENTER Of BILBAO
STRAFED FROM AIR
Keeling Basques Reorganize
Defense as Insurgents
Pound at Gates.
BACKGROUND

O-A> ~ - ~ ~ ~ " ~ ~
In offensive more terocious than
that launched against Madrid
Spanish insurgents for Ueeks hare
been battering at Basque city OF
Bilbao.
Capture OF principal city in
sent-dutononlous state in North
ern Spain uould carry rich prize
OF coal and mineral rcdlth in ad-
dit1on to being OF immense strate-
g1c udlue for successful rebel con-
conclusion OF 1Uar.
Fly the Associated Press.
BILBAO, June 1.-THE Basque
battalions reorganized the defenses
of Bilbao today for last-ditch stand
within the broken Iron ring" of the
battered city's defenses.
Basque President Jose Antonio
Aguirre announced just before noon
that the government still was in
Bilbao. He fatty denied the report
some OF its members had fed to
Santander.
LoW-f1ying insurgent planes raided
the center of the Basque capital in
mid-mornlng, splitting machine-gun
fire. Inhabitants fed for shelter as
the planes dove and circled.
Defense Guns Busy.
Defense anti-aircraft guns pumped
shells into the sky.
Heavy bombing operations over this
tightly -hemmed-in area insurgents
reported they already had taken some
houses in Bilbaos actual outskirts)
made evacuation Of the wounded a
grave problem
The road northwest to Santander
was under heavy attack from the air.
with % persons reported killed in one
sector This was virtually the only
land artery Of escape for the Bilbao
population.
Population Stoical.
On the whole, however. Bilbao was
stoical in the face of the constant at
tacks from the sky
Crouched in makeshift refugees. much
Of the civil population heard bullets
spatter against walls and in streets
determined to hold out to the last.
From the battle front at the edge
of the city there were Basque reports
OF a stiff counter-attack that resulted
in Basque capture of mountain near
Flea. That is about 5 miles north
east of Bilbao, at point where in
surgents had cracked the iron ring of
outer defenses of the regional capital
Say Gap in Lines Closed.
The Basques declared they had
forced back one wedge which the in
surgents had driven through the Iron
ring" But they admitted there was
terrific pressure against them in the
Zamudio sector, miles northeast
of Bilbao
The point in the defenses at which
the insurgents have made their deep
est dent apparently was Santa Marina,
not far east of Bilbao.
Leaders Of the seml-autonomous
Basque republic admitted the vicious
Ol1NllSlSC VI 1SllSl dllSSlulO TIdllClSCO
Frances insurgent armies had pierced
the first line of Notifications near
Flea and Larrabezua, about five miles
east of the city.
The capitals situation was dan
gerous, they declared, although not
desperate. The Basque cabinet was
understood to be in almost continuous
session.
Bayonne, France, today to confer with
Basque representatives there.
The Basques, said sailors who
brought the four to Bayonne in a
small boat, are determined to resist
the insurgents quarter by quarter,
house by house"-with the same de-
termination that has kept Madrid in
government hands.
They denied insurgent assertions
that Generalissimo Frances troops
were entering the city. The in
surgents, they said, are several miles
from Bilbao proper.
In the roadstead Of the port at the
mouth Of the Nervion River, where it
forms an estuary of the Bay of Bis
cay. British and French destroyers
were said to be ready to evacuate
President Jose Antonio Aguirre and
other members Of the government If
it becomes necessary.
Although reeling under the steady
stab of insurgent blows, the deter
mined Basque nilitiamen were said to
be clinging to the essential positions
for the defen4e Of The city