Lost & Invulnerable

In the centre of the 80-mile southern Aragon front, from Teruel to the Mediterranean, Rightist forces last week broke through mountainous Leftist defenses, drove a salient 15 miles into Leftist territory. At week's end Rightists were threatening the lead and iron mining centre of Lucena del Cid. Capture of the town would give the Rightists a straight road to Castelloen de la Plana, which would serve as a springboard for an attack on Valencia, 40 miles down the coast. On the northern front no appreciable gains were made by either side.

New York Timesman Herbert L. Matthews last week scrambled over a snowy Pyrenees pass from France to visit the Leftists' "lost'' 43rd Division, hemmed in the mountains by Rightists on three sides with the French border at its back. The 10,000 men, holding a 400-square mile area, receive supplies by a 200-mule caravan, which makes a daily trip from France. Reported Correspondent Matthews: "The division's situation is as invulnerable as a military position can be; there is an abundance of food and other provisions and enough ammunition to enable the division to carry on until the Government sends more."

Reports of dissension between Rightist officers and their foreign confederates last week reached a new high as border dispatches claimed that Rightist Generalissimo Franco had been forced to call his top-rank Spanish military leaders into conference to deal with repeated fights between Rightists and Italians behind his lines. Rightist officers traveling to Gibraltar from Seville to buy medical supplies freely expressed their fears that the Italians and Germans intend to keep a military hold on Spain if Franco wins. Groused one of famed radiorating General Queipo de Llano's staff officers: "The dictatorial manner of the Italian and German officers is unbearable."

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