IF men must be killed in Spain it is perhaps
better that
NEWS OF THE WEEK
they should be lotion's than Spaniards. For the Italians have no conceivable business in Spain at all. Englishmen and Frenchmen and Russians have joined one side or the other bedause they believed in what that side was fighting 'for. But, the Italians, as many prisoners captured by the Government forces in the past week have testified, did not even know- the' were going to Spain. They enlisted foi Ethiopia, some of them because they were out of work, - and found themselves in due course landed on Spanish sojL 1AS individuals, indeed, they are meeting a bitter and "undeserved -fate, but there is little ground for commi,serating wish the ,Italian Government on the losses sustained by the :forCes it has sent to Spain. How heavy those losses are sinmot _be_accqrately computed, but it seems clear that the thrust on Madrid from the north-east was carried out solely by organised Italian forces, which after an initial success were routed by a Government air attack which inflicted heavy casualties, while the Government militiamen rounded up some 250 Italian prisoners. The counter-attack is continuing, and another villag: occupied by Italians is said to have been surrounded. General Miaja is wisely treating his prisoners with clemency, and their number seems likely to be swelled by desertions. But the full in the fighting round the capital is only temporary. Madrid is still in serious danger.
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