Word: catalonia
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Early this week Loyalist resistance in northern Catalonia collapsed, and in a swift advance northward from Gerona the Rebel Armies of Generalissimo Francisco Franco occupied Figueras, for eleven days the fourth capital of Loyalist Spain. As last as their transport could keep up with them, they bore down on the frontier towns of Port-Bou, La Junquera and Puigcerda. It was only a matter of hours before the Generalissimo would wipe out the only remaining Loyalist territory in northern Spain and be master of the Spanish side of the French-Spanish frontier from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean...
...less panicky was the Spanish Government in its retreat. Loyalist President Manuel Azaña passed over the border on foot. President Luis Companys of Catalonia and his government got to safety. So did President Jose Antonio de Aguirre of the now non-existent Basque Republic. Premier Dr. Juan Negrin stuck it out until the last minute, then took to a mountain pass to France. The last of his ministers were shortly on his heels...
...that "fought so long against such odds," Dr. Negrin attacked the European democracies (especially Great Britain) for turning their backs on Republican Spain. He revealed that his Government, forced to buy contraband munitions wherever it could, had bought some from Germany and Italy, its mortal enemies. "If we lose Catalonia, we shall continue to fight in the central part of Spain," the Premier said. "Nations live not only by victories, but also by the examples they give their people." The Premier's war aims were unanimously approved by the Cortes...
With Loyalist Catalonia fast disappearing and with no safe haven for the paintings remaining, Foreign Minister Julio Alvarez del Vayo early last week went to Perpignan, France, to arrange for their transfer to Geneva. From League authorities Señor Alvarez del Vayo extracted: 1) a promise that the art be kept under guard until the war is over; 2) a solemn assurance that the paintings remain forever the property of Spain, no matter what government is finally installed in Spain. Particularly did Minister Alvarez del Vayo want to make sure that the art would not fall into Italy...
...fallen prey to the same headline propaganda which at first affixed the "red" label to the Spanish Government; later, by a process of wish-thinking, won the war several times for the fascists; and now so gleefully sounds the funeral dirge of the Republic. The facts should be understood. Catalonia itself is not yet conquered, while the MadridValencia sector remains entirely firm. In the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, all but a very narrow strip of seacoast was taken, only to be won completely back within two years...