Experience tells that the first news of the results of a counter-offensive fare too often falsied by subsequent events. At the same time the Spanish Government seems to be making confident claims for the sudden attack Jaunched by their forces upon the advancing insurgents, Moreover they report that at last the town of Huesca which is a so important factor in their communications his been regained,
have been investing that strong For some time pest Caialan troops the insurgents and its return to Government hands—assuming that the Calalonians are fully in associa tion with Madrd—may" disturb the insurgents' position at Saragossa, If by any chance the sortie from Madrid has had the effect of seriously ched ing the advance of General Franco's forces, the Government's optimism may, not be so badly conceived, It hing all along been recognized that the time factor is more. Important to the Insurgents than to the Government, always assuming that Mad-Fla does not fall, In other words the Insurgents may\ find it difficult to their forces intact and in particular to maintain the enthusiasm of their Moorish levies if much ground be lost in the face of the loyalists' onslaught, Nevertheless so convinced have' been certain neutral ob-Servers of the effectiveness of the insurgents plans for the capture of 'Madrid and the rapidity of General Franco's advance, that' the reports how current may be strongly discounted by later despatches before ong,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.