Evening star., 1938-04-01
REBELS SEE.FALL
OF KEY CITY SOON
Flight to France Keeps On.
Isolation of Catalonia
Is Threatened.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
ZARAGOZA. April Insurgent
commanders announced today they
had seized the positions dominating
Lerida, key city in northeastern
Spain and that occupation of the
provincial capital awaited only a
cleanup of the Segre River Valley.
Battling with tanks and machine
guns Though the olive groves and
hills about Lerida. troops commanded
by Gen. Juan Vague continued their
ehcircling movement of the historic
citadel and expected the last ma jor
barrier to Barcelona and the Mediter-
ranean Coast soon would fall. Gov
ernmenG forces. however, had pre-
pared a new defensive line 10 miles
to the East, and resisted savagely
every step.
Meanwhile. the flight to France of
defeated government militia continued
as the spreading insurgent offensive
threatened to isolate Catalonia, the
governments major stronghold.
$50 An Hour.
Refugees from the war front were
arriving at the rate of about $50 an
hour at Bagneres de Luchon, on the
frontier.
One thousand troops and 1000
civilians fled yesterday and French
border officials shifted them to camps
in frontier towns. The soldiers were
disarmed.
tIn Barcelona, the Catalan trade
unions appealed for 100000 volun-
teers to fight the rebels.)
Insurgents said they found copy
OF an order from the government COM
mand directing the officers to keep
their front lines from retreating
under the penalty of death if neces-
sary for fleeing troops.
Government losses in the hard
fought conflict were declared to be
unusually heavy.
Rebels Win in North.
Insurgents reported the capture Of
large number of prisoners in the
Lerida sector. including the chief of
the sanitary corps of the Eel Camp
esino' brigade and a Lister brigade
major, Carmelo Martinez of Madrid.
The insurgent drive was pushing up
along the Pyrenees frontier and down
toward the Mediterranean coastal
plain to cut Catalan communications
with the rest of government Spain
Barcelona and Madrid.
In the north, Insurgent Gen.
frances Spanish troops occupied
Graus, 81 miles over the French bor-
der, and pursued the governments S
fleeing militia up the Esera River gap
into the mountains. ,
1t was believed Binefar, on the road
running southeast from Barbastro to
Lerida. had been evacuated by the
government
Italians Win.
On the southern sector Gen. Garcia
Vallnos Italians and Navarrese Divi-
sion and Col. Jose Monasterio's cavalry
broke the enemy's resistance at
Nonaspe. 10 miles east of the battle
field of Caspe, and advanced through
the Matarrana River Valley into the
Catalan Province of Tarragona, inflict-
ing heavy losses on the enemy and
seizing large stores.
The Italian Black Arrow column
captured an entire enemy battalion, it
reported, including 10 English soldiers
with their captain.
Here the insurgents were barely 40
miles from the coast.
French Resort Packed.
BAGNERES DE LUCHON, France.
April P.-Thousands of Spanish
military and civilian refugees fleeing
before the great insurgent drive
through Northeastern Spain today
packed this French mountain resort
after days of terrible hardships in the
Pyranees.
Through deep SHOWS the refugees
plodded toward a haven in friendly
France, but many of their compan-
ions already had met death in plunges
into snow-filled canyons.
French frontier guards found the
stiffened bodies of others where they
had dropped from exhaustion in the
snowbanks. Bodies lay on rocky
slopes and ridges. Some had literally
fallen over the border into France and
to their deaths.
The refugees arrived in desperate
need of food and shelter. Here
mothers and children were given first
places in hastily erected shelters and
private homes, were fed hot meals and
given warm covers. But all were
warned their respite in France would
be brief.