A third change in the seat of the Republican Government is reported imminent, Rumours in circulation here say the Republican Government is about to move from Barcelona to Gerona, about 53 miles to the northeast of the Catalonian capital and only 40 miles from the French frontier. Since the start of the Civil War, the Government first moved from Madrid to. Valencia, and then from Valencia to Barcelona, A French businessman, who has just arrived from Spain, says the population in Barcelona have endured such privations that the prospect of a victory for Gen, Francisco Franco leaves them practically indifferent.
After taking Lerida, the Nationalists, who thus have 37 of Spain's 50 provincial capi are rapidly nearing the coast, After a fourteen-mile advance. the Fourth Navarre Division under Gen.
Alonso captured Morella, from which the Nationalists have access to the sea at a point where the provinces of Tarragona and Castellon meet. Gen. Valina's columns took Mora, 20 miles from the coast The Navarre division encountered some resistance in the mountains, but this was overcome after a engagement, in which they took 1,000 prisoners.
Over 8,000 prisoners, it is claimed. were taken when the Nationalists captured Lerida, It is also reported that 366 Republican militiamen who escaped to Luchon, across the French border, have gone over to Nationalist territory via Hendaye.
A message' released by Gen, Franco's press bureau states that 24 children and eleven nurses were killed and nine nurses wounded when a public assistance hospital with a Red Cross was hit b; in a Republican air raid on Toledo last Saturday.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.