V alencia and Barcelona The Madrid forces suffered two minor reverses
this v•eek. In the Asturias, the exhausted troops were unable to retain the town of Cangas Onis, on the Santander-Oviedo road, which has previously been almost obliterated by ai'rial attack. On the Aragon front, the insurgents attacked, with great superiority in numbers and arms, the troops sur- rounding Sabinanigo and took three villages. The greatest activity has been in the political field ; at Valencia an anti- Fascist Popular Front has been formed by the political parties, the syndicates and the unions, involving the abandon- ment of any_ propaganda against each and full support of the Government's war policies. This is an important step to- wards securing complete unity among the Government's supporters_; but it has been overshadowed by the _report, which is said on good authority to be accurate, that the seat of the Spanish Government is to be moved from Valencia to Barcelona. Neither city has any advantage so far as security is concerned, and the motive is probably to achieve greater unity between the Spanish and Catalan Governments- in the conduct of the war. This may also offer some explanation of Sefior Companys' surprising announcement that, his term of office technically expiring at the end of next month, he proposes to retire into private life, although he was elected for the same period as the duration of Parliament, which has been prolonged until the end of the war. * *
