Franco at the Coast General Franco's forces reached the sea
last week at three points, Alcanar, Vinaroz, and Benicarlo, and now control some 35 miles of coast extending south from the mouth of the Ebro ; the fall of Tortosa appears to be imminent. Thus Catalonia is completely cut off from the rest of Republican Spain by land ; and at the same time the insur- gents are forcing their way along the Pyrenees frontier, of which they now control three-quarters. In the fighting in Lerida the International Brigade appears to have suffered severely. The Government has made two appointments to direct the conduct of the war in the now isolated central portion of its territory. General Miaja, the defender of Madrid, has been appointed to supreme command of its military forces, and Senor Jesus Hernandez, the Communist ex-Minister of Education, has been entrusted with their political direction. The Republic has made yet another appeal to the League Council, which in October, 1937, undertook to ensure that " non-intervention " should be observed, to consider the position created by the invasion of Spain by foreign troops. But if past experience is any guide, the Government, deprived of arms, will have to depend on its superior man-power alone if General Franco's claim to have won the war is to be disproved.
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