DR. VIDDI'S TALE

Dr. Vidal's Tale

Last week, as post-war recriminations in Spain became more & more bitter, a physician named Jiniero Vidal swore to a blood-curdling story:

Early in February Catalonia was collapsing like a punctured balloon. One day Colonel Enrique Lister, one of the commanders who led the Loyalists in their last-ditch stand, ordered him to evacuate his Gerona hospital of its sick and wounded. Dr. Vidal protested that many of the patients were too frail to be moved. Thereupon Colonel Lister got so very angry that he ordered shot down not Dr. Vidal, but Dr. Vidal's 28-year-old wife and 24 doctors, nurses and attendants.

On the strength of this strange tale of Dr. Vidal, the Spanish Government last week asked France to hand over Colonel Lister. French authorities said they would have to decide whether Colonel Lister's alleged act was political or criminal. They were also reported to be pondering whether to exchange Colonel Lister for a French Communist Deputy who had been imprisoned at Alicante. If France either extradites or exchanges Colonel Lister, it was taken for granted that the Loyalist hero's next last-ditch stand would be before a firing squad.

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