physicians and formed the basis of what is now an effective Medical Bureau in that city. The same is true of Philadelphia and other large centers.
International Labor Defense members and branches have participated in all public actions in behalf of Spain’s heroic defenders—picket lines before Italian and German consulates, tag days on city streets, protest petitions to the United States government when its so-called Neutrality actions threatened the Spanish people.
Buttons bearing the colors of Loyalist Spain were sold in tens of thousands, not only adding to the funds but displaying solidarity to the population of America’s biggest cities.
Only a short while ago the International Labor Defense am- bulance equipped to care for the soldiers at the front was ship- ped aboard the SS. Normandie with three others to join the American Medical contigent in Madrid. ~
The suffering of the Spanish people is almost too great to reduce into words. Children, women, the aged have become targets for the fiendish attacks of Hitler and Mussolini aircraft. The food supply is limited and the number to be fed grows daily as the ravages of the war sweep the country side.
Tens of thousands of refugees pour into Madrid and Valencia daily—voting with their feet against Franco and his fascist rule of terror——and they must be fed. What little food there is must be shared with them and their children.
However, the greatest need is still for medical aid. Men are dying on the battlefields because the first aid service is still in- adequate. There are not enough field hospitals and not enough equipment for those that do exist. Andre Malraux reported to American audiences that when he left Valencia there was not a single X-ray plate available—a vital necessity in setting leg wounds. c He reported that there was not enough anaesthesia—- a vital necessity in the treatment of flesh wounds. Without anaesthesia the treating of these wounds becomes even greater torture than the wounds themselves.
The International Labor Defense calls on all its friends and
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