The Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy 413 Manning Chambers, Toronto. November 30, 1937. Since the last release a 40 page report of the Conference has been issued. Additional help has been secured for the office and itinerary work so that we hope to make a release weekly in the future. OVER SEAS NEWS It is reported that the total number of Rebel prisoners and deserters in the Northern Aragon Sector alone has amounted in the last three weeks to more than 1000. It is believed that this is proof of the unwillingness of those recruited by the insurgent military authorities to fight for the cause of Fascism. Italian planes are still coming to he rebels. Government aviators who carried out a daylight raid on two of the principal Majorca aerodromes recently confirmed the presence there of a larger number of bombers and fighting machines than ever before. An Italian aviator captured during the past few days on the Aragon front declared that he had only arrived two weeks previously and that he belonged to the regular Italian Air Force. It is these planes and their pilots which are a direct testimony of Italy's observance of the Non—Intervention Pact. KATE MANGAN REPORTS There is not a town or village in Catalonia which has not its corresponding child colony. There are 11 colonies in Barcelonia and its immediate neighborhood. “Ayuda Infantil" (Child Welfare) is taking care of about 3,000 children but all the municipalitors of the towns take responsibility for homes when they have them organized. There are over 25,000 refugee children from Madrid, Malaga, and the North now in Catalonia, and these unfortunate people are still streaming in. The “Generalidad" (Catalan Government) are now caring for more than a half million refugees. To this must be added the expense of transport, the upkeep of hostels, dining rooms, food, clothing, shoes and soap. Miss Magnan also gives very interesting accounts of the homes in the Pyrenees, of experiences of the refugees on their long journeys to their destination, of the way they are cared for on their journeys and says in closing -“One cannot help but remark on the generous and whole-hearted spirit in which the Catalans have shouldered the heavy and ever increasing problem of refugees. They received the first refugees last Autumn from Irun and they are now welcoming vast multitudes from the North. The majority of these people are not able to work, they are old, infirm or children. Other points of Spain in their absorption of refugees have reached the maturation point. For the normal population every where food is now rationed. Everywhere in Spain it will be a hard winter. It is to be hoped all Foreign Committees for Aid to Spain will cooperate with the Catalan authorities to enable them to feed, clothe and give the medical attention necessary for all these unfortunate people. DOROTHY PARKER BROADCASTS FROM MADRID "There cannot be, in all the world, any place like the City of Madrid today. It has been under siege for nearly a year. You read about besieged cities in medieval days and you say, how awful things must have been, thank goodness they don’t happen now. It has happened and goes on happening in Madrid, a city as big and as beautiful and as modern as Washington. And the streets are crowded, the people go about their daily living, it isn’t tense nor hysterical, what they have isn’t morale, it is the sure steady spirit of those who know what the fight is about and who know they must win. In spite of all the evacuation there are still a million people here. Yesterday I saw a women who lives in the poorest quarter. It had been bombed twice by the Fascists. Her house is one of the few left standing. She refuses to leave. Every six weeks she says her husband has 48 hours leave from the front. Naturally he wants to come home and see her and the children.