Abstract
LAST week in the House of Commons, Mr. Chamberlain expressed his own and indeed the general view of the recent air-raids on Barcelona when he said that no one could read the reports “without horror and disgust”. This feeling must be aroused by the whole practice of bombing from aircraft, especially from great heights, for it is inevitable that there should be loss of many innocent lives and destruction of buildings of no military significance such as universities and scientific and other learned institutions. In this connexion we have received a copy of the following cable from the “Subsecretario Instruccion Publica” addressed to the president of the Boyal Society of Medicine: “The Regular Air Force of Germany and Italy is demolishing the cities of Spain. The University of Barcelona like the Cajal Institute in Madrid has been almost completely destroyed. The same has happened to other centres of culture. During the last three days of terrible and continuous bombing, more than a thousand people were killed in Barcelona alone. We Spaniards of liberal and democratic convictions who only devote ourselves to literary and scientific activities protest against these monstrous crimes. At the same time we appeal to the sensitivity of our English colleagues and ask for their help in the defence of the independence of our country as well as of the universal principles of humanity, justice arid law which the Spanish Republic implies. We ask you to bring to bear all your influence on the British Government so that it may take steps to avoid these barbarous atrocities, which are directed not only against defenceless human beings but also against the civilization and peace of the world. Jacinto Benavente (Nobel Prize) ; Ignacio Bolivar (naturalist) ; Pio Del Rio Hortega (biologue) ; P. Bosch Gimpera (archeologue) ; Enrique Moles, D.Sc. ; Jose Xirau, D.L. ; A. Duperier, D.Sc.”
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Air-Raids on Barcelona. Nature 141, 546–547 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141546b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141546b0