Guns at Triana

In La Triana, the dingy Gypsy quarter of Seville whence come Spain's greatest dancers and matadors, snipers lay on mottled roofs last week potting at the police. News of the Triana gunfire spread north through Spain to become the most serious crisis the young Republic has had to face.

Seville has been restless for weeks. Times are hard in Andalusia; there is serious unemployment. Syndicalist agitators have found many willing ears. Trouble started when Angel Pestana, national head of the Syndicalists, attempted to lead a funeral procession in honor of a Syndicalist killed in a ruckus fortnight ago. Police barred the way. There was a scuffle. Knives flashed. Pistols banged. Angel Pestana prudently disappeared. When the firing ceased and the dust cleared one policeman and two Syndicalists lay dead. At least 15 men were seriously wounded.

Syndicalists called a general strike. Angry crowds attempted to storm the Governor's residence, were beaten back by troops. Governor Jose Bastos proclaimed martial law.

For hundreds of years all the bakers of Seville have come from the suburban village of Alcala de Guardaira. All last week the frightened bakers marched to work guarded by soldiers with fixed bayonets.* Hundreds of Syndicalists were arrested. Enough pistols and knives were found on them to fill six hampers in the police station. Two army trucks were filled with prisoners, sent off to exile in West Africa. Four men were killed in the Plaza Espana when a mob attempted to rescue the caravan of exiles.

At the nearby village of Dos Hermanos (Two Brothers) rioters set fire to the telephone office, then attempted to burn the screaming, hysterical telephone girls alive by sniping at doors and windows. Perspiring Civil Guards dashed to the rescue. Seville's Governor Bastos forthwith dismissed the Mayor of Two Brothers as a pacifist.

Things might have been even worse were it not for the prompt arrest of Dr. Villana. Dr. Villana, a sinister figure who could only exist in a romantic novel or modern Spain, is a wandering Gypsy physician who has tramped the bleak hills of Andalusia for years healing the sick and preaching bloody revolution. He and his staff of conspirators were arrested last week just as they were planning a triumphal entrance into Seville. The tavern of the Brothers Cornelio, a notorious Syndicalist meeting place, was surrounded by artillery. Well-trained gunners blew the little bodega to bits with three-inch shells.

In Madrid the Provisional Government issued an emergency decree under the scarehead FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE REPUBLIC. Among its provisions was one declaring all strikes illegal unless the workers give ten days notice.

That indefatigable troublemaker, white-haired, white-fanged "President" Macia of Catalonia (who owes his election largely to Syndicalist votes) immediately issued a statement from Barcelona:

"If Madrid's decree means a repetition of the tyranny against labor imposed by former Madrid Governments against Catalonia, the Generalidad will oppose it."

In the Cortes at Madrid, Minister of the Interior Miguel Maura laid Seville's troubles directly to fat-faced Major Ramon Franco, politico-aviator, now a Deputy.

"I accuse him," shouted Minister Maura, "of an alliance with the Communists* in an attempt to subvert the army until the officers had to sleep in the Tablada Airdrome in Seville with revolvers under their pillows!"

Major Franco, red-faced and perspiring, bellowed from his bench "It's a lie! It's a lie!"

*In Barcelona last week the bakers struck with the Syndicalists, attempted in one bakery to bake their employer in his own oven. He was rescued just in time.

--Accurate reporters are careful not to confuse Syndicalists with Communists. Syndicalists, proud Spaniards, take no orders from Moscow.

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