Sixth Capital

Blasted from little Figueras, the fourth Loyalist capital since the war began, Premier Juan Negrin, most of his cabinet and a few of his military aides early in the week made a beeline for the French border 17 miles away. The French Government, anxious to get in the good graces of Rebel Generalissimo Franco, quietly let it be known that the Loyalist Government would not be allowed to carry on its activities in French territory.

Premier Negrin soon found a way out. In the half-Spanish, half-French border village of Le Perthus he established his Government in a house, No. 22 on the main street of the village, the back door of which was in Spanish territory, the front in French. The Spanish section of the town was temporarily made the fifth capital of Loyalist Spain. But not for long. When the triumphant Rebels pressed forward to the frontier (see p. 16), Premier

& staff closed the back, walked out the front door into France.

With the Rebel capture of Catalonia complete, Premier Negrin, determined to hold out in central Loyalist Spain until he can wangle the best possible terms out of Generalissimo Franco or until international developments--i.e., war or the threat of war between Italy and France--turn the tide in favor of Loyalist Spain, announced his intention to go to Madrid and continue the struggle. Again France indulged in a friendly gesture to General Franco and informed Premier Negrin that no special plane would be allowed to remove him from French soil. Again the Premier found a way out. With his Foreign Minister, Julio Alvarez del Vayo, he quietly journeyed to Toulouse, boarded an Air France plane for Madrid. It was a dangerous solution, for a forced landing would have dumped them in the sea near Rebel territory.

Back in Madrid, the Loyalists' first capital,* the Premier called what remains of his cabinet together, proclaimed Madrid the capital once more of the Loyalist Government. With weatherbeaten old General Miaja as Generalissimo and commander-in-chief of all of central Spain, the Premier drafted a proclamation calling for "a compact, heroic national front" to make a last-ditch stand in the Madrid area. "Our fate is at stake and it depends entirely upon ourselves to come out successfully from the present situation through our own will power and determination. Either we shall all save ourselves or sink ourselves in extermination and opprobrium," said the proclamation.

It will take some weeks before General Franco can rest and reorganize his forces and replenish his supplies for a big drive on central Loyalist Spain but last week the Rebel commanders began giving Madrid a bloody foretaste of the fight to come. The big guns outside Madrid, fired only sporadically for a year, opened up in earnest and plumped their shells into the city. Twenty-four were killed and 64 wounded in one day's barrage. Rebel bombers this week also resumed heavy attacks on Valencia and Alicante, two of the three main ports remaining in Loyalist hands.

*No. 2, Valencia; No. 3, Barcelona; No. 4, Figueras.

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