Evening star., 1937-05-02
RESCUE OF BILBAO
CHILDREN RUSHED;
FRANCO At FRONT
! ritish Work Against Time
as Rebels Push Nearer
Capital City.
EVACUATION OF 100000
Is HELD IMPOSSIBILITY
Insurgents Refusal to Respect
Foreign Refugee Vessels Men.
aces Mass Migration.
BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND
The BaSques Joined the Madrid
government against the Spanish
insurgents to realize their cherished
ambition, autonomy. The first uar
parliament granted it last October
I, but the three Basque proptnceS-
AlaDa, Gutpuscoa and Viscdyd-re-
rtdineG Invaluable Madrid allies.
Irun and San Sebastian, captured
By insurgents in the first fierce
northern fighting, are in Guipuscod
Province. Besieged Bilbao is the
capital OF the people some beliepe
Aem from the lost cVltinent At
lantis. Basque toundries hare
turned Basque iron, copper and tin
into government munitions.
By the Associated Press.
HENDAYE, Franco-Spanish From
tier May 1.-Anxious Basques and
willing British shippers worked against
weighty odds tonight to evacuate
Bilbao's non- -combatants beyond the
range of Spanish insurgent bombs and
cannon.
Refuge around the Bay of Biscay's
bend in France for some children was
assured when the masters of nine Brit
tsh freighters in Bilbao Harbor volun-
teered to eVacuate as many as possible
from the imminent menace of bom-
bardment and siege.
But shortage of ships and insur-
gent Gen. Francisco Frances refusal
to respect foreign refugee vessels run
ming his Bay of Biscay gauntlet
menaced the success of mass migra-
ton.
Franco Takes Command
Time also became a factor when
Gen. Franco arrived on the northern
front to take personal command of his
troops, poised about 10 miles east of
Bilbao on the Durango Guernica line.
Reports from the northern war zone
said Gen. Emilio Mola, commanding
the drive against Bilbao, had sent an
utlimatum to the Basque president,
Juan Antonio Aguirre, demanding the
immediate surrender of the city ito
avoid useless sacrifice" From Bilbao
came report Aguirre offered to ship
out all tnsurgent hostages If Franco
would permit evacuation of non-com-
batants.
Insurgent officers declared they were
confident the Basques' desperate
military situation" would force them
to surrender.
At Gen. Mola's Vitoria headquarters
It was asserted the insurgents had
reached a point II miles from Bilbao
in their advance northwestward from
Durango.
Important new gains were claimed
for the insurgent right wing, sweep
ing along the Bay of Biscay coast
The insurgent colors were flying
tonight from the town halls of Ber-
meo, Mundaca, Pedernales and AL
tamira, all between l6 and 20 miles
from Bilbao.
A Vitoria communique reported 100
deserters who came into the insurgent
lines with their arms said the Basque
and Asturian militiamen we're ex-
hausted by continual fighting and re-
treating.
Basques Claim Gains.
Basque reports declared the in
surgent advance had been halted. The
defense lines, they said, had been
reorganized and firmly entrenched
and the Basques had been able to
turn and thrust back in a local Of
fensive which recaptured Garono
Mound, nicknamed Hill 49," in the
Guernica sector.
In the face of an expected urgent
need for speed in removing Bilbaos
noncombatants and a scarcity of
ships in which to carry them, re-
moval even of the 10000 mentioned
by French and British officials as
their goal seemed unlikely.
Diplomatic sources said the evacu-
alton OF 100000 of the citys aged,
women and children-which is the
number Basque President Aguirre has
said should go-was beyond possibility.
(Ofhcials in London disclosed that
British warships would protect mer-
chantmen evacuating civilians from
Bilbao and that the feet in the Bay
OF Biscay-a battleship, cruiser and
five destroyers-has been instructed
(See SPAIN, Page A-4.)