NEWS OF THE WEEK
WHILE air raids are continuing to take their sanguinary toll of civilians in Madrid the general military situation-. remains unchanged. General Franco's suc- cesses are represented at the maximum by the capture of one or two more buildings on the outskirts of the capital. = While his aeroplanes can work far more destruction yet he is as far from capturing Madrid as he was a month ago, and it is not very clear what good the remains 'of the city will do him if he gets them. His troops meanwhile will suffer more than the defenders of the city from the rigours of the winter which is now setting in. Meanwhile, the danger of international complications is increased by the insurgents' declaration of a blockade of Barcelona. The British Government has taken the right course in refusing to recognise belligerency at this stage and announcing that British vessels outside the three-mile limit will, if necessary, be protected by British warships. The -situation regarding Barcelona itself remains obscure owing to the failure of the. British Ambassador, now at Hendaye, to get any reply from Burgos to his questions on that point. The report, apparently accurate, of a torpedo attack on the Governnient cruiser ' Miguel de Cervantes ' suggests other dapgerous possibilities. The torpedo may have been launched by.,a Government submarine that has gone °v et; to the instirgents, but the vernment claim to have evidence pointing to a more sinister origin.
