Progress

Famed chiefly for talking, the Rightist "Radio General" Queipo de Llano and his men achieved the only significant military action in Spain last week, finally wrested from the Leftists 150 square miles in the Penarroya sector which has been warmly contested for the past three months, chiefly because they contain deposits of lead, copper, iron and coal. Biggest is a French-owned coal mine and this week, with the Leftists repulsed to a distance of twelve miles, miners resumed work and General Queipo de Llano radiorated louder than ever. Meanwhile, the widely advertised Aragon-Teruel offensive along the northeastern battle line from the French frontier to a point a little north of Valencia, over which both Rightists and Leftists were violently shadow-boxing fortnight ago (TIME, Nov. 1), was postponed for at least ten days because of an act of God. Unexpected rains in the high Pyrenees flooded the Gallego and Ebro Rivers 20 ft. above normal, flooded trenches on both sides for several miles to their rear, turned the whole district southeast of Saragossa into a temporary lake. Inconclusive fighting continued in the Madrid suburbs.

Meanwhile, for the first time in modern history, a Spanish Government moved to Barcelona, the second move of the Leftist Government since the war started. Plenty of government bureaus remained in overcrowded Valencia. Signaling the move, Minister of the Interior Julian Zugazagoita made a radio speech containing two statements, neither of which would have been possible year ago when the Leftist Government first moved to Valencia:

"The Government planned to go to Barcelona as early as last November but decided temporarily on Valencia. . . . Barcelona now in its turn has the significance of showing the clear fidelity of the Government toward Catalonia.

"The Government is not obliged to appeal for obedience, but has the right to impose it. ... We have come to agree with the sage formula of that exceptional captain of Christ, Saint Ignatius de Loyola, who imposed on his disciples silent obedience 'until death.' The task must be accomplished. We must win by our own strength alone."

Last November an admission that the Madrid Government dared not move to the then anarchist-ridden Catalan Barcelona, or words of praise for the founder of the powerful, much-feared Jesuit order, would have been tantamount to treason.

On the sea thus far there has been little decisive action in the Spanish war, but Rightist Generalissimo Francisco Franco, without waiting to be granted the right to blockade, one of the "belligerent rights" now being hashed over in London (see col. 1), was reported last week planning to establish a naval blockade of the Leftist coast, appointed Vice Admiral Francisco Moreno Fernandez to be Commander in Chief of Rightist naval forces in Majorca. This made correspondents unquenchably curious to visit the island of Majorca, often rumored to be in Italian hands.

An official Rightist-conducted tour was arranged primarily for French correspondents but New York Timesman George Axelsson managed to get there first and snoop around on his own for four days, then spent three on the conducted tour. London's Laborite Daily Herald insisted the French correspondents were "duped" when they saw no Italian garrison, the Herald's Paris office continuing to see a garrison of 30,000. Mr. Axelsson in an uncensored dispatch to the Times agreed with the French correspondents that there is no Italian garrison but an Italian and German aviation personnel of 500 and some 100 planes. "Majorca still is in the hands of the Spanish--but the Italians and the Germans are guests of honor," cabled he, adding that among the Italian airmen he recognized Bruno Mussolini.

Mr. Axelsson saw three and heard reliably of six Rightist submarines which base their activities at Majorca. These flew the Rightist flag but "the natives," cabled Observer Axelsson, "naively and frankly suggested that the big ones might have been bought from Italy."

The world's most potent warship, Britain's famed Hood, was ordered to Balearic waters last week, ordered this week to Barcelona to investigate the sinking of a British tramp steamer by an airplane which the London Daily Herald insisted bore marks showing that its bomber pilot was Bruno Mussolini.

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