BARCELONA RUNS WITH BLOOD.
Fighting Continues and Reinforcements Are Blocked by Strikers.
PARIS, July 29. — Spanish couriers from Barcelona arriving at Cerbere on the frontier report that artillery is battering the barricades, behind which the insurgents are fighting desperately. Heavy fighting is in progress on the Rambla, in San Anne Square, and the Calle del Espino.
The gutters are running with blood. The number of dead and wounded cannot be estimated, but it is believed to be heavy.
Attempts on the Captain General continue as he disposes the position of the troops.
The Military Governor of Barcelona published a decree to-day ordering the inhabitants of the city to return to their homes. After twenty-four hours any one found in the streets is liable to be shot on sight.
Many instances of soldiers refusing to fire on the mobs are reported. A Lieutenant of infantry threatened to shoot a policeman who was about to fire his revolver into the crowds.
The Government forces, failing to make headway, ahve been obliged to act on the defensive, attacking only when absolutely compelled by the menacing position of the revolutionists.
The situation is further complicated by the spread of the general strike ordered by the labor organizations of Barcelona two days ago. The indications are that the strike will spread to the provinces of Lerida, Gerona, and Tarragona, but no definite news has been received from these points.
The terror-stricken people are fleeing from the larger towns to the open country and the small villages, where there is less exposure to danger.
Five convents and several private residences have been burned at Llanza, where the excitement is growing.
Grave events are expected at Figueras… Comparative calm had been restored when orders were issued to the recruits to report for duty. The entire population is preparing to resist. The Portbou express left Figueras this morning, but stopped at Llanza, where the track had been blown up by dynamite.
At Junquera … telegraph poles have been chopped down. All places where public funds have been deposited are guarded by the military. Business is at a complete standstill. The merchants are panic stricken and are placing their funds in foreign banks for safekeeping.
Advices from Granollers … state that two convents have been burned to the ground.
At Cassadelaselva the civil guard was disarmed by the mob and imprisoned in the barracks. The call to the colors of the reservists of 1906 and 1907, who are on leave, was without result, not a single reservist reporting for duty.
The situation in Barcelona is rendered desperate by the absence of a sufficient military force capable of putting down the revolutionists. This condition results from the dispatch of all available troops to Melilla. The garrisons throughout Catalonia have thus been reduced to 6,000 men, while the revolutionists at Barcelona and adjacent towns far exceed that number.
The Government forces are also scattered by the need of quelling outbreaks at many detached points. The isolation of the province, owing to the destruction of railways, gave the revolutionary element and strikers forty-eight hours to make uninterrupted preparations to cut off the arrival of reinforcements. They are thus masters of the situation.
The line from Madrid to Barcelona is a scene of desolation. Trenches many feet wide have been cut across the railway embankments in the country districts. The small bridges spanning the streets in several towns have been pulled down.
The arrival of reinforcements, so urgently needed by the Government forces, is retarded by the destruction of railroads and the avenues of communication leading to the city. The revolutionists are heavily armed with muskets, knives, and revolvers. They have an effective organization and hospital equipment which promptly looks after the dead and wounded.
The Government is now seeking to relieve the city by sea, as the land communications are interrupted. All available ships are being hurried to Barcelona.
Whethere there is an ulterior political purpose behind the revolutionary uprising throughout Catalonia is not yet clear. Outwardly the movement is thus far a protest against the Government’s war policy in Morocco and its levy of large reserve for war purposes.