Jan. 20.
The twenty-five day onslaught by General Franco on Catalonia with the capture of Barcelona has undoubtedly brought big sults to his forces, which have reached the sea and are within a short distance of their final objective. The Republican troops have fought a determined rearguard action, but it is apparent that the superiority of General Franco's armies in material, and trained fighting men, give them what is almost an overwhelming advantage, and the fact that the Republican troops have been able to slond up so well against the advance gives rise to much speculation as to what would have been the result of all this fighting it the policy of non-intervention had been as faithfully observed by those who sympathize with Republican Spain, as it has by the'very earnest and active foreign supporters of the rebel leader. The Government troops retreating on Barcelona will it is reported eventually occupy a strongly fortified line within which it is hoped to offer as stubborn a defence of the city as has been the case with Madrid. In the meantime they have commenced offensives in Estremadura, Anda-Jusia and the centre front, not only with the purpose of still further freeing Madrid, but, apparently also in the hope that success in those localities would have the effect of obliging General Franco to remove some of his troops from the Catalonian offensive for the purpose of reinforcement on the other fronts. Republican claims to have made some progress and to have actually got to within a short distance of Cordova are not admitted by the rebels, though that denial need not necessarily mean that the Government forees have made no progress whatever. Indeed with the insurgents' concen= tution of all their efforts upon the Catalonian campaign it is by no means un-Jikely that the Government troops may have achieved some success, though there is nothing fo indicate that the counter-measures have up to the present obliged General Franco to modify his original idea of pursuing the onslaught on Barcelona to the bitter end.
In reality both sides are racing against time. The Government command hopes to Secure such striking successes that General Franco will be obliged to weaken his forces in Catalonia before he captures Barcelona, thereby relieving the present immense pressure, while General Franco is forcing the Pace in the hope that a quick success will enable him to pay attention to the other fronts. In Barcelona the Government is making the last desperate efforts to ward off defeat. The whole population has been mobilized, and only the very young, or very old are free from the obligation of render= ing assistance to the Government in one way or another, There is more than one reason, for the desperation of the Catalans, Like the Basques they have consistently tala claim to, and have secured a certain degree of independence. It is true that the separatist tendencies have more recently been merged in the struggle of the social lasses in Spain. Both the Catalans and the Basques threw in their Jot with the Re= publican Government in its fight with General Franco and his Fascist allies. The Basques were defeated and their autonomy destroyed by General Franco during the summer and autumn of 1937, and the Catalans, realizing what has happened in that respect, are all the more determined to carry on the defence of their interests. They realize that with the victory of General Franco will xo all that degree of independence which they have hitherto enjoyed, that their condition will be reduced to something similar to the Basques, and they are con= sequently involved in what is for them a '-and-death struggle, In the circumstances it would be rash to assume that even th part of the fighting will soon be ended, for whatever the Catalans may miss in' the nature of material and superior equipment is to some extent balanced by the spirit in which they are ghting, and, if they can manage to hold General Franco outside Barcelona, the Spanish Civil War way not end quite: So soon ts he and his foreign supporters wish, Undoubtedly, up to the present his gamble has met with success, but to be complete an carly reduction of Bar cclona is necessary, in order that he may concentrate upon the subjugation of the large portion of Spain which still remains under Republican control.
With the ending of the Catalonian campaign General Franco would be in a much more favourable position than he is now. His lines would be considerably. shortened, which means in itself an access of strength, with which he would probably be able to embark upon a huge pineer-like movement central and southern Spain - designed primarily to squeeze out Madrid which has resisted him effectively ever since the out-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.