Trains, boats, cars, all seemed to be crawling along! At long last, all difliculties overcome, I reached Valencia on a boat on May 26th, 193 7. There were no outward indications that the country was at war. The wide,’ beautiful streets were crowded with people. Everything appeared to be normal, except for the presence of soldiers and oflicers, who all seemed to be hurrying somewhere. Business continued to be very active, stores open and crowded. In true Spanish custom, merchants displayed their goods on the streets——pens, knives, shoes, linen goods, hats ———veverything they had to sell. “

A Narrow Escape

1 STOPPED at Hotel Europa. I applied to the Military Office

with seven other Internationals. We were all assigned to the Tank Corps. My knowledge of motors, tractors, and driv» ing, helped me in this case. Five of my new comrades were Austrians, one was a German and the other a Serb. We were to leave the next day for the Tank Base. Having rested up, we lost no time in looking over the city.

Hans, an Austrian, and I, had a room on the third floor in the Hotel. We went to bed about one o’clock that night. Suddenly Hans woke me up. The room was full of dust. Sirens were screaming. Antiraircraft "guns were firing. A bomb fell and exploded in the main square, half a block away from our Hotel. We struck a match and soon discovered a hole in the ceiling of our room. _ * . .

The whole hotel was in darkness and in an uproar. Every body was rushing to the basement. Through the window, I saw people dashing for “refugios.” Some had only their night’ clothes on. A baby was crying at the top of its voice as the woman who was carrying it, ran across the street.

About fifteen minutes later, the excitement calmed down. We found the Cause of the hole in the ceiling. An Italian bomb, 25 kilograms in weight, was under our bed, unexploded! We had some Italian worker to thank for saving our lives!

During this bombardment, two bombs hit a nearby apart’ rnent house, killing twelve, and wounding twentyvtwo, while two others fell in the square, causing little damage. I was

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