Anarchism
7903
SPANISH ATROCITIES COMMITTEE.
OTATO
REVIVAL OF
THE INQUISITION.
DETAILS OF THE TORTURES INFLICTED ON SPANISH POLITICAL PRISONERS.
REPRINTED FROM "FREEDOM."
Can be obtained at Clarion office 72 Fleet Street; W. Reeves, 185 Fleet
Street; Labor Leader, 53 Fleet Street; Social Democratic Federation, 337
Strand; T. Cantwell, 127 Ossulston Street, N. W.
PRICE ONE PENNY.
All orders to be addressed to Mrs. N. F. Dryhurst, 11 Downshire
Hill, N. W.
LONDON.
PUBLISHED FOR THE SPANISH ATROCITIES COMMITTEE BY
J. PERRY, 7 MILLMAN SI., W.C.
1897

ЗОЯТА Нетката
TA
PREFATORY NOTE.
Having been asked to write a few words by way of preface,
I think I need not say much more than that I believe the state-
ments in this little pamphlet to be, in the main, true.
If so,
the facts speak for themselves.
It is generally understood-and the reason is obvious enough
-that in a deed of violence like the throwing of the bomb into
a church procession at Barcelona, there are rarely more than
two or three accomplices. In this case (though the thing might
well have been the work of a religious fanatic), it was assumed
that it was the work of Anarchists, and more than four hun-
dred persons of all shades of advanced opinion-members of
workmen's clubs, Republicans, Radicals, Socialists, &c.-were
arrested and accused of complicity; of these nearly one hundred
have been tried, sixty-three of whom have been formally
acquitted but are really to be sent to Rio d'Oro in Africa for an
indefinite period; while of the remainder five have been shot,
and the rest condemned to various terms of imprisonment
ranging up to twenty years.
The pamphlet shows how the evidence for these convictions
has been obtained. And the whole proceeding proves that the
real object of this revival of Inquisitional tortures has been,
not the punishmeut of a criminal act, but the suppression of
advanced political opinion.
EDWARD CARPENTER.
May, 1897,
01
bro IIA

1235573-190
Spanish Atrocities
3
The Barcelona Anarchists.
The horrors of the Barcelona trial surpass everything known in the history
of Anarchist-nay, of almost all other-persecutions since the days of the
Holy Inquisition. About 300 Anarchists were arrested, most of whom will
be transported to African islands without trial. Eighty-seven were tried
during last month, and the Government Prosecutor demanded the death sen-
tence for not less than twenty-eight of them.
From a Spanish daily paper we gather that the method resorted to by the
prosecution is to make the whole of the members or of the attendants at
meetings of a workmen's club, the "Centro de Carreteros," responsible for
what could evidently only have been arranged (if so) by a very small number
of persons who might or might not, accidentally, have been members of this
society as well,-namely, for the bomb explosion in the Cambios Nuevos
street when the religious procession passed. This absurd accusation is based
on the evidence of three men-the chief accused,--Tomas Ascheri, Antonio
Nogues and Luis Mas; and how this "evidence" was obtained is clear to
those who have followed the analogous procedure resorted to in 1894, when
after the manifestly individual acts of P. Pallas and Salvador Franch scores
of comrades were in a similar way brought to trial-seven of whom were
executed after having been tortured in the most incredible way (see El Pro-
ceso de un gran crimen, summarised in an article published in Liberty in the
summer of 1895). Similar witnesses are coming forward now; a letter to
Rochefort (published in the Intransigeant of Paris) by one of the gaolers in
the fortress of Montjuich-where all this takes place says: they were flog-
ged, their nails torn off, their genital parts compressed until the agony of
suffering led these three to sign whatever the inquiring judge wanted them
to say. Among the other methods used are the feeding on salt fish without
any water and the deprivation of sleep, the prisoners being forced for days
and nights to walk along their cells; if they drop to sleep they are beaten
until they rise again, and after reaching in that way the highest point of
nervousness they are interrogated. And yet some are said to have resisted
all these tortures-José Molas, F. Faner, Juan B. Oller and others; many
also made spirited declarations before the court-martial.
There is yet another innovation: this time not even the sentences were
made public after the trial finished; only a week afterwards we hear that
eight have been sentenced to death; forty to 20 years and twenty-seven to
8 years penal servitude! One thousand and sixteen years of penal servitude,
every day of which means life in a hell upon earth.
Those who would disbelieve even these accounts I refer to the Pall Mall
Gazette of Dec. 19, where an extract from Prince Bismarck's German paper
is reproduced-the paper which, of ail, is the most bitter enemy of Socialists
and Anarchists, and often recommends measures against them which fall very
little short of torture. It is a communication from Manila, in the Philippine

4
Spanish Atrocities
Islands, where, like in Cuba, the inhabitants have risen against Sparish rule,
which benefits them by infesting their beautiful country with hosts of greedy
officials and zealous priests. After telling how fifty-nine prisoners perished
in a black hole, it goes on to say: "The instruments of torture from the time
of the Inquisition, which were still preserved here," (the priests evidently
know how to bide their time !)-"were made use of. Thumbscrews, Span-
ish boots, and all such inventions of the Middle Ages are again the order of
the day."-Freedom, January 1897.
Proceedings of the Court Martial
HELD AT MONTJUICH FORTRESS, DECEMBER 15, 1896.
ANTONIO NOGUES declares that everything he has said against him-
self as well as against the other accused is absolutely false; that if he
has made any confessions they were extorted from him by tortures.
CALLIS, MOLAS, and SUNYER also declare that they were subjected
to the same tortures as was Nogues.
All the counsellors for the defence are in the audience chamber.
The reading of the documents presented by the latter finishes about a
quarter past one in the afternoon. At two o'clock the sitting of the
court is adjourned. At three o'clock, all the accused are brought in;
but they are removed before the sitting had been reopened. The
accused remain outside.
Then ASCHERI is told to enter. Ascheri admitted his having con-
fessed to be the author of the attempt, adding however, that he has
made that declaration only when obliged by a superior force.
It is now CALLIS's turn. Scarcely had he uttered a few words when
a great agitation was produced in court. This was caused by seeing
the examining magistrate ENRIQUA MARZO open the door by striking
against it with his foot and pushing Callis out of the court. Immedi-
ately after this the hangmen get hold of him and take him to an upper
apartment whence a few moments later one can hear loud screams.
The judge hastens to order another of the accused to be brought
into the court, in order that the court may not pay attention to what
had just taken place. Several counsel for the defence have remained
standing up and the commotion caused by the treatment of Callis does
not pass away for a long time.
Then the lawyer PIERRE COROMINAS is ordered to enter. He begins
by drawing the attention of the tribunal to certain points which have
remained obscure during the trial. He specially points out that in the
course of his confrontation with Nogues, who had accused him with
having attended secret meetings, he had asked him to name the others

Spanish Atrocities
5
who were present; Nogues then mentioned Ascheri, Mas, and some
others, and all these have formally denied it.
COROMINAS points out that having been confronted with Ascheri, the
latter declared that he never met Corominas at the secret meetings.
This, added the accused, had been stated in the procedure, but the
judge suppressed it in his summing up. Mas has also made the same
statement, which has not been taken notice of either in the said sum-
mary (resumé).
Corominas added that he demanded to be confronted with the presi
dent and the door-keeper of the Centro de Carreteros (Carmen's Club),
in order that they might be asked as to whether they had seen him at
the club on any other occasions but the time of the conferences. But
he has been refused these confrontations, rendering thus impossible an
evidence solicited in conformity with the rules of procedure.
With the accused MOLAS this scandalous treatment is brought to
the highest pitch. As soon as brought into court, Molas states that
he had been martyrised in order to force him to tell lies. The presi
dent threatens not to allow him to speak. But Molas expresses himself
in such energetic terms that one member of the tribunal in rising and
addressing the president exclaimed: "Mr. President, he must be allowed
to speak-this accused man-for he has a right to do it!"
From all the benches where the counsel for the defence were seated
a murmur of approval accompanies these words, which cause Marzo
to become confused.
Molas then recounts the story of his Calvary. A sepulchral silence
prevails in court. The story told by Molas, impressed by an undeni-
able accent of sincerity, produced a profound emotion. Marzo is
terrified. Molas had been threatened to be subjected to fresh torture
if he will tell before the tribunal of all the cruelties he has had to
undergo. That meant placing this accused between the death sentence
or martyrdom.
Molas, while leaving the court conducted by his hangman who takes
him back to his dungeon, is placid and calm and appears to be facing
without fear the martyrdom with which he had been threatened.
After Molas one of the accused who had not been tortured was
brought in.
NOGUES, while being brought into court, cries, for he has had to suffer
martyrdom before. This is what Nogues declared: After having been
several times subjected to torture, the pains made him confess to being
the author of the attempt. His torturers, however, told him that it was
not this that he ought to declare, that he ought to confess some other
things, and that he ought to charge his comrades. He also told tue

6
Spanish Atrocities
tribunal that after four months of imprisonment, he still bears the
traces of the wounds inflicted upon him by burning. He adds that he
has spent eight days without eating or sleeping; that his nails had
been torn off; that he has got numberless blows with the rod; that he
has had the gag applied to him and his testicles compressed by means
of a guitar string.
When Nogues is leaving the court, his face is contracted with the
pain, his eyes start out of the socket, but his steady gait and his proud
look seem to say: "You can torture me, you can deprive me of nour-
ishment and of sleep, I am satisfied now!"
His
MAS follows after Nogues. Mas has become insane. He could not
stand the sufferings, and the tortures have caused him to lose his senses.
The words addressed to him he absolutely fails to understand.
body is covered with such infirmities, he is so atrociously mutilated
that they have had to take off his handcuffs for fear of breaking his
wrists. During his appearance, the physician of the regiment exam-
ined him.
Finally, SUNYER is heard, who equally tells the story of the tortures
he has had to undergo. He speaks in the presence of PORTAS, lieuten-
ant, of the gendarmery. His statements produce among the audience a
sense of horror, so much so that several gendarmes leave the hall in
exclaiming Assassins! Assassins !!"
A young lawyer (one of the counsel for defence), being a prey to
the emotion aroused in him by the poignant tale of the accused, cannot
bear it any longer and leaves the court. Some of the other counsel
for the defence utter vehement shouts of protest, and it is reported
that Ascheri's counsel has challenged the lieutenant of the gendarmery,
Portas.
Some gendarmes indignantly declare that the gendarmery has been
converted into a body of hangmen, and in their anger they take off the
prisoners' handcuffs.
The latter are formed into two rows in a room close to that wherein
the court-martial is seated, and the exasperated gendarmes tell the
accused of all that is going on in court.
In consequence of these incidents, an energetic protest is drawn up
and addressed to the president of the tribunal, in which the release of
all the accused is demanded.
This demand is rejected, and people who desired nothing else but to
unravel the iniquities of the procedure, and to bring to light their
innocence, have to be quiet.
However, all the accused are led into court. Several among them
try to recount some facts already known.

Spanish Atrocities
7
CASANOVAS and others say that during the examinations, they
noticed that their accusers showed their blood-stained wrists.
The Frenchman, JOSEPH THIOULOUSE, who does not know a word of
Spanish, asks for an interpreter. This quite natural demand is met
with a refusal. The military judge, Marzo, shrugs his shoulders and
makes a sign to his guards. These understand at once, and again
remove the unfortunate man to his dungeon. There he is firmly
chained to the wall. Then the hangmen (private gendarmes) began
kicking him about every where, and after this they opened his mouth
and put into it a small wooden cylinder, made like the bridle of a horse,
from the ends of which two strings are hanging down. These are
fastened behind his neck, and Thioulouse is obliged to walk, while
numberless smacks with the whip are applied to him. All the while
the gendarmes insulted him. When he made his declaration before
the judge Marzo, his counsel said with a revolting cynicism: "It seems
as though this blackguard needed another lesson in Spanish!"
Little OLLER states that in order to force him to declare himself the
bearer of the two bonbs found a few days before the attempt in the
Rue Fivaller, he had been shockingly tortured. (One will remember
that this youth of twenty has succeeded in resisting the tortures and
has signed nothing). Another one shows a letter which the martyr-
ised comrades have passed on to him.
All are avowing their innocence mest energetically, and while pro-
claiming themselves Anarchists, they deny having been implicated in
any conspiracy or having participated in the attempt, which was the
act of a single man. All declared that they pardoned their accusers,
since the latter were forced by torture to state what was evidently false.
Thioulouse, the Frenchman mentioned above, while pointing to the
judge who had cowered down on his seat, said: "It was you who
ordered me to be horse-whipped, under the pretext that I did not want
to speak Spanish, of which I then did not understand even one word!"
To sum up, there was not a single comrade who did not loudly avow his
innocence, and vehemently resent the accusations made against him.
It is stated that the court has ordered an inquiry to be made, and
that the physician of the fortress of Montjuich had been commissioned
to examine the tortured Anarchists.
It is known, among other shocking details, that the fire-torture had
been practised in a place well-known to the inhabitants of the fortress:
la Cuadra de Artilleria (the stables of the artillery) where one can still
see the stones recently blackened by the fire.
NOTE. This report is a summary of the news penetrating by various channels
from the prison almost immediately after the trial. Since then a full report has
been sent out by the prisoners dated, Fortress of Montjuich, February 13, 1897
(published verbatim in El Despertar, of New York, April 20, 1897. The above
report confirms that in the Despertar).

8
Spanish Atrocities
Letters from Montjuich.
Letter sent by a jailer of Montjuich prison to the Intransigeant of
Paris:-
Barcelona, December 16, 1896.
Mr. EDITOR,-The sittings of the court martial lasted for five days, and were
rigorously kept secret.
On the first day the judge read a record of the events that led to the trial, full
of exaggerations and untruths.
On the second day the public prosecutor read the act of accusation, calling
them "wild beasts" and "bloodthirsty criminals." After finishing the reading
of this act he avowed that he "shut his eyes against justice" and demanded the
death sentence on twenty-eight and penal servitude for life for the remainder
of the prisoners.
On the third day the presiding judge asked the accusers whether they main-
tained their accusations against the rest of the prisoners, and they assented,
with slight alterations. After this the speeches for the defence were made. All
the counsel for the defence were military officers; nearly all demanded the
acquittal of their clients.
On the evening of the fifth day all the accused were led before the court, where
they maintained their innocence with the utmost energy.
[The details of their declarations-how by torture they were compelled to
make statements incriminating themselves and others, are identical with those
contained in the fuller report of the court-martial's last sitting. -ED.]
It is not known what will follow, but it is certain that the condemnation of a
single one of those unfortunate men would under these circumstances be a mon-
strous iniquity.
Here are the names of the officers who, under the orders of Lieutenant Narcisso
Portas, perpetrated the tortures: José Mayans had to put on the mordaza (gag)
and the instruments for compressing the head, squeezing out the testicles, bela-
boring the flesh on throat and temples; he also commanded the flogging, executed
by other warders, to keep the prisoners constantly running along without
allowing them sleep, food or drink. Manuel Carreras had to apply red hot irons
to their flesh; Tiburio Estorqui had to mutilate the genital parts by means of
reeds and guitar strings. To relieve this gang the following other torturers
acted: Felix (orral, Rafael Mayans Botas, Cirilo Ruiz Osma, Leandro Lopez
Parralles and Sergeant Botas.
I ask you to publish the names of these wretches, and receive the thanks of all
the unhappy prisoners.-Yours, etc.,
A LETTER FROM THE TORTURED NOGUES.
[This is the letter that Noguès has succeeded in transmitting to one of his
friends.]
COMRADE,-You know that I am one of three accusers (the other two are Aschéri
and Molas) who figure in the trial. I could not bear the atrocious tortures of so
many days. On my arrest I spent eight days without food or drink, obliged to
walk continually to and fro or be flogged; and, as if that did not suffice, I was
made to trot as though I were a horse trained at the riding-school, until, worn
out with fatigue, I fell to the ground. Then the hangmen burnt my lips with
red hot irons, and when I declared myself the author of the attempt they replied,
"You do not tell the truth; we know that the author is another one, but we
want to know your accomplices. Besides, yon still retain six bombs; and, along

Spanish Atrocities
9
with little Oller, you deposited two bombs in the rue Fivaller.-Who are your
accomplices?"
In spite of my desire to make an end of it, I could not answer anything.
Who should I accuse, since all are innocent? Finally, six comrades were placed
before me whom I had to accuse, and of whom I beg pardon. Thus my declar-
ation and the accusations that I made ......... (I cannot finish, the hangmen
are coming).
NOGUES.
A LESSON IN SPANISH, AT MONTJUICH.
One of the tortured at Barcelona has succeeded in passing through the following
letter to a comrade:
MY DEAR FRIEND,-This is what has happened to me on the day of the declar-
ations, after which I was called before the judge whom I had given to understand
that I did not know the Castilian language, still less the Catalonian dialect.
Therefore I had asked for an interpreter, lest I should mistake one word for
another, also for my personal safety and for the authentication of the judge.
Thinking the spirit of equity to be one of the foremost duties of the judge, I
believed myself confronted with a superior officer worthy of the instruction which
he has received, in consequence of his education and his promise to me, on the
word of a caballero (gentleman), to pay attention to my demand at the next
cross-examination.
I am taken back to my habitual dormitorio, to remain there scarcely a quarter
of an hour; the guard calls me and puts me in the hands (or at the mercy) of
private guards, who make me put down my meagre baggage in a corner of the
passage leading to the great descent of the staircase to the zero. I am left to
wait for a little while in the middle of the staircase, near the platform which
communicates with the calabosillos (small dungeons); then we resumed the march
to the place indicated and known under the name of zero. (Note that on the
way from the staircase I received a fearful slap in the face!) Imagine the ter-
rible aspect of such a vast place, at midnight, with two civil guards following
behind and one going in front of you with a candle in his hand; a staircase that
reeks of carbolic !
Arrived at the ante-zero, I am bound up like a sausage; one of them opens the
door and lets in another unfortunate victim, who did not utter a sound and
passed me by like a ghost; the poor wretch, whose features and appearance I
had not time to recognise, must have known for what purpose this gloomy retreat
served-well fitted for the things that were displayed there.
I am ordered to undress, or rather I am undressed--waistcoat, jacket, trousers
and pants-all these were placed in one corner and myself in another, my hands
tied by the wrists and the arms taken backwards by a strong cord to the height
of the biceps, afterwards bound tightly round so that the cord penetrates the
flesh. The civil guard, with a stout whip in his hand, says to me, "You do not
want to speak Spanish? I will make you speak before you leave this place!"
And, by heaven! he showers a quantity of lashes upon me, on the calves, on the
knuckles-everywhere. At the end of five minutes I did not know which part
ached most. Again the question was put to me: Was I determined to ask the
aid of an interpreter; or would I make my statements in Spanish? I make a
sign that I cannot; because I do not understand the language. Then the flog-
ging begins afresh: on both sides, on the legs-each lash producing a fresh smile
on the countenance of the official,-lasting another five minutes. Seeing that I
did not speak, they put a mordaza (gag) into my mouth; I was then tied down
and the torture recommenced-on one side the whip, the string by which the
was fastened on the other. Once more I am told that, if this should not suffice,
gag

10
Spanish Atrocities
they have some other means which are infallible; that this is only the beginning;
that I did not know as yet what was in prospect for me. After a number of lashes
bestowed with the utmost force, I am freed of the gag and I am asked whether I
have made up my mind to obey; that, if not, there are some other things.
Then I said that I spoke a few words with difficulty, and that I would pro-
nounce them as well as I could. One of them told me that this would do.
Then I was taken to the judge, Marzo, who thus addressed me: "You can
speak now! He put a number of questions to me which I scarcely understood,
and to which I replied full of fear lest I had misunderstood them.
Aschéri is brought in, looking like a spectre, and does not even look at me. A
presentiment paralyzed my pains when thinking of what those others had to
suffer during the two months and more at the hands of the hangmen-inquisitors.
Aschéri's new blouse and trousers told a harrowing tale in the light of my expe-
rience: It showed that his old clothes must be in rags or stained with blood;
and his voice sounded as if it came from the grave.
The question having been put to him in an imperious tone by the judge as to
whether he had seen me at the public or secret meetings. He replied in a death-
like voice with this single word, "Public." "Several times?" queried the judge.
"Once," replies Aschéri. He signed his deposition and went away in accordance
with the orders of the judge. This man seemed like a hypnotised being; he
walked away with a halting step, like a man suffering from a venereal disease.
The judge says to me, "Seis una banda de pillos!" (You are a band of good-
for-nothing creatures). His secretary burst into a roar of laughter, quite
amused by this insult; to which I replied in the following words: "No solo que
entende usted para pillos!" (I do not know what you mean by the term "pillos").
Since then, the day when we were photographed, the same civil guard who
inflicted the lashes on me, said to me, "Ten ricardaras......ya, ya!" On the
day when we were brought up in order to ask for a counsel for defence, this
same guard asked me whether I had forgotten to speak! Another day, when I
was called before the judge-I do not know why, there were several military
physicians there, they told me. I could not see what purpose this formality
served; I was with Rogiero and I thought that it was because we were foreigners.
We were asked our profession, why we came here, our age- which these men
seemed to verify.
Afterwards, on the day when the charges were read, the judge had the cynic-
ism to ask me--in front of fourteen or fifteen counsel for defence,-whether I
remembered that they had the means to make anyone speak; that I ought to
know it! You want no more cynicism.
This is, as briefly as possible, my sorrowful history of the part played by me.
n the monstrous trial.-Your unfortunate comrade, JOSEPH THIOULOUSE.
Freedom, Febtuary 1897
Later Details.
The evidence of the tortures inflicted upon Anarchist prisoners in the
fortress of Montjuich (Spain) is accumulating. There are two letters
from warders of the fortress addressed to the Intransigeant (Rochefort's
organ), and published in that paper. There is, further, Antonic Nogues
(sentenced to death) letter from prison, the report of the sitting of the
Court Martial and the letter from Joseph Thioulouse, a prisoner-all
these were published in the Libertaire and in the Père Peinard of Paris;

Spanisk Atrocities
11
some also appeared in Les Temps Nouveaux, La Revue Blanche, and
extracts from them in the Intransigeant.
The Despertar, of New York, further publishes extracts from Spanish
papers: Pi y Margall's (the veteran Republican) El Nuevo Régimen, of
Madrid; other papers are El Pais and La Justicia; the Dominicales,
of Madrid, contains the following:
"We have received, some little time ago, not one but a dozen letters from the
Montjuich prisoners, one and all arguing: We are innocent! We are innocent!
Don't believe this on our mere assertion only; we can prove it before witnesses;
but for this purpose it becomes necessary that we should be tried in public, and
not in the subterranean prisons of Montjuich.
"Have not these unhappy men proved their innocence by demanding a public
trial?
"And yet of these protests, accompanied by convincing proofs, and addressed
to all papers like they were to ours, not one paper has mentioned a word (ex-
cepting El Pais and La Justicia). The veil of silence covered these cries of
pain.
"Later on, fearful rumours circulated; the declarations were wrung from the
prisoners by means of torture! In the Montjuich prison the Inquisition ruled
supreme!
"If these rumours were false, why were they not denied by those concerned?
"Was it not incumbent on them to justify themselves in the eyes of Spain
and of the whole world?
"In spite of the outburst of indignation, the trial took place with closed
doors, and the press, in official reports, had to state: The chief accused de-
clared before the Court Martial that their confessions were wrung from them
by atrocious procedures. Also the indignant protests of counsel for the defence
and their taunts against the prosecutors were reported.
"Public opinion has now decided.
"Better the guilty escape punishment than torture one innocent. Since the
confessions were obtained by violence, the trial is null and void."
This is published in the capital of Spain.
All these are bourgeois papers: no Anarchist paper can be published
at present in Spain.
No official contradiction was published; and the authorship of an
apparently "well informed" denial published in the Journal-a Parisian
daily paper-was soon traced to a despicable Spanish agent, and the
editor is well castigated in the Libertaire of Jan. 15 for being bribed
by the Spanish torturers; he is now labelled "the valet of the hangman."
All that the French Government did-though one of the letters pub-
lished comes from a French prisoner at Montjuich fortress-was to
arrest about a dozen Spanish refugees in Paris, some of whom have
already been sent over to England.
Our French comrades carry on a vigorous agitation. Similar efforts
are now being made at Berlin, where all the document have also been
translated and published in the Sozialist; several capitalist papers also
quoting portions from the latter.

12
Spanish Atrocities
The whole of the documents have now been collected in the French
paper L'Incorruptible (5 rue Briquet, Paris), a special number, to which
most of the French Anarchist writers contributed; also in a pamphlet,
Die Justizgreuel von Barcelona, published at Berlin (office of the
Sozialist, 105 FRANKFURTER ALLEE S.0.).
Captain Juan Morales, one of the counsel for the defence, has com-
mitted suicide in Madrid. The scenes he had witnessed in Montjuich
fortress doubtlessly proved too awful for him-though, as an officer of
the Spanish army, he must have been well used to mete out harsh
treatment himself-and may have driven him to end his own life.
The names of the torturers and the names of the victims have been
published in full; both are yet alive and the statements can be inves-
tigated. Will civilised Europe shut her ears and allow new horrors,
the murder of eight innocent men, to be added to the horrors already
committed?
The "records" of the trial are now at Madrid, submitted to the re-
vision of the higher authorities; hence the delay of so many weeks,
leaving these helpless men in suspense of their fate; hence, also, a short
time left to us to make their sufferings known, and to prevent, if pos-
sible, a repetition of the judicial murders of Barcelona in 1894, of
Xeres in 1892, of Chicago in 1887, and-of everyday in what is called
administration of JUSTICE!-(Freedom, February 1897.)
Scarcely any fresh news reaches us from the tortured comrades in
the fortress of Montjuich. The authorities at Madrid take good care
to prolong their suspense as to their fate; it is ten weeks since the
death-sentences were passed. In most civilised countries the news of
the tortures was published and discussed, and an inquiry into the facts
demanded; the silence opposed by the Spanish Government to all this
is only equalled in its callous brutality by the silence of the great
capitalist press and other mouthpieces of so-called public opinion.
The names of all the prisoners have now been published; Tomas
Ascheri, Antonio Nogues, José Molas, Jaime Villela, José Vilas, José
Pons, Luis Mas and Sebastian Sunyer were sentenced to be shot; four
were sentenced to 20 years of penal servitude, fourteen to 19 years, 1
month and 11 days (sic), thirteen to 9 years 4 months, thirty-six to 8
years, 8 months and 1 day; twelve were acquitted-but not liberated.
It is not necessary to gather new details of the tortures, as not one
word of what was previously stated here has been contradicted. El
Pais, a Republican paper of Madrid, wrote:
"Respectable citizens of Barcelona-doctors, lawyers, civil engineers, mer-
chants-write to us exhorting us to prevent a great iniquity being perpetrated
upon the prisoners of the Montjuich fortress.

Spanish Atrocities
13
"These letters all bear the imprint of revolt and terror. If the writers were
not worthy of unlimited confidence, we should hesitate to believe the enormities
they tell us of.
"What the foreign press has published with regard to the Anarchists' trial is
but pale, a dim outline in comparison with what we have heard personally."
Instances of this could be multiplied. What could we state more
impressive than the fact that one of the nails torn from the feet of one
of the tortured found its way to Madrid and is circulating there as an
ad oculos demonstration of the existence of torture,
Besides those who were tried (83) and those who were acquitted but
not set free (12), about 170 have been in prison for seven months with-
out being tried or even interrogated; the Friedenker (Freethinker) of
Milwaukee, U.S., has a letter from one of its collaborators who is
among the untried prisoners.
Even a Spanish reactionary paper, the Heraldo, of Madrid now ad-
mits that unspeakable cruelties have been committed, and that up till
now it has been silent upon the mysteries of the Barcelona dungeons
-from patriotism (sic). It asserts that a judicial inquiry has been
opened.
paper,
The Frankfurter Zeitung, of Frankfort, the leading provincial
instructed a correspondent to investigate the matter in Barcelona, and
on Feb. 13 he reported that he had spoken with former Anarchist pris-
oners, lawyers employed in these cases, members of the court-martial,
friends and relatives of the prisoners, high officials, etc.; that he received
a written communication from 74 prisoners (which he sent to the Frank-
furter Zeitung), etc. Based upon all these materials, he says: "I am
sorry to have to confess that I have acquired the strongest conviction that
the published details of the Barcelona horrors are quite correctly reported
-perhaps, even, they understate what has happened." The 74 prisoners
say in this letter that since the trial they have, as before, been deprived
of all communication with their friends; and why?-"That our appear-
ance may not betray the work of the inquisitors!!!"
Before the court-martial our comrades Francisco Callis, José Molas,
Antonio Noguès, Sebastian Sunyer, even Luis Mas-though he has
gone mad through excessive pain-declared that all their confessions.
were false, that they were made under the sway of hunger, thirst, ex-
haustion, sleeplessness, after endless beating, after their genital parts
had been crushed, after the gag (the mordaza) had been applied for days,
as well as manacles and screws, lacerating the flesh by their iron spikes,
after their bodies being burned all over with red-hot irons.
"Look at
our tortured bodies, and it will be seen that all that we say is true."

14
Spanish Atrocities
The correspondent spoke with several military officers who were pres-
ent at the court-martial, and they assured him that the aspect of the
accused was fearful. Deadly pale, with dull, sunken eyes, reduced to
skeletons, their hands, feet and mouths showed traces of cruel ill-
treatment.
And all this for having attended at public meetings organised by a
legally constituted society (the Carmen's Ciub)! and the fact of having
contributed at these meetings a few pence to a collection for a sick
fellow-worker! This the accusation calls secret meetings and collections
for buying explosives, etc.
All this was obtained by a newspaper correspondent who has no
sympathy whatever with Anarchism. If the English press had not been
callous and indifferent to all that is not business, political or otherwise,
it would have instituted a similar inquiry long since.
One thing the Spanish Government has achieved: Since the Chicago
trial and the acts of the French, Italian and Spanish Anarchists in 1892-
'94, such attention has never been drawn to Anarchism as by the re-
ports of these savage tortures. Unfortunately, at this moment, the
Turkish Government rivals with the Spanish for the palm in atrocities,
and since so-called public attention is carefully drawn by its managers
upon the less advanced events; all is done by the allied forces of cap-
italism and the press to make Spain forgotten.
The rising in Cuba and the Phillipines is a rising for local independ-
ence, whilst that in Crete is for union with another State. Strength-
ened Greece would be a stronger bulwark of capitalism in the East than
decaying Turkey; hence the Cretan and Hellenic sympathies of all
parties, whilst the Cretes at the door of every nation-Ireland, Alsace,
Sicily, Poland, Egypt, India, Cuba-must not stir! What greater
mockery can be imagined than the recent demonstrations of the students
of Barcelona in favor of Crete and Greece? In the shadow of the
Montjuich fortress, the home of torture and untold suffering, they ser-
enade the Greek consul, who, at a dinner, drinks to the triumph of the
Spanish Turks in Cuba and the Phillipines! (see Daily Chronicle Feb.
24th) National and religious fanaticism are being revived in the East,
and the united Powers carefully nurse these hotbeds of ignorance and
prejudice that were always detrimental to freedom and progress, hoping
to play them as a last card against the coming revolution.
It is more than ever incumbent upon us to show, by the example of
the Barcelona tortures and any amount of other arguments to be found
nearer home, the inherent evil of every government. Governments,
large or small, are solidary in their crimes, and whoever upholds the
apparently best of them, upholds at the same time the very worst. The

Spanish Atrocities
15
Turkish Government, be it ever so cynically corrupt, will never be des-
troyed without something very similar being put in its place; for every
real blow at authority in Turkey would be an indirect blow at authority
at home, and this suicidal step no government can be expected to take.
Hence all these questions of politics are hopelessly entangled in a circle
from which they can never evolve; only outside of all these outgrowths
of authority is there freedom and life. This conscience, the daily spec-
tacle of the ridiculous impotence of politics, ought to strengthen within
us; and at this moment-when, after all, the better element of the
public is, to some extent, aware of the crimes of governments inflicted
upon Armenians, Cretans, Cubans, etc.-there is no better work to do
than to join the international agitation to give the widest possible pub-
licity to the tortures inflicted upon the Anarchist prisoners of Barcelona.
They are silent, and may be killed, but their silence is of the kind of
which August Spies spoke when, on the scaffold, he said: "Our silence
will be more powerful than the voices you strangle to-day." It is for
us to realise this promise.-Freedom, March 1897.
This month we have before us an overwhelming mass of documents which
might fill the entire space of our paper. Letters and appeals from the tor-
tured who were sentenced to death, letters from other prisoners, an article
by Tarrida del Marmol, long statements by the Spanish independent press,
manifestoes, etc.; details more horrible than ever become known, and the
facts are openly and without meeting a denial discussed in the Spanish press.
First we publish an appeal from poor tortured Sebastian Sunyer, first
published by the Berlin Sozialist and reprinted as a leaflet in 100,000 copies.
Surely the English labor press will find space for the appalling words of
the unhappy man.
"To ALL GOOD AND RIGHT-MINDED PEOPLE
"From you I hope for a little sympathy and justice.
"They want to murder us.
"After having torn the flesh from our bodies and the nails from our fingers,
after compressing our heads and mutilating our testicles, they want us to dis-
appear so that we never might bear witness of these infamous proceedings.
"Good and right-feeling people, do not let your attention be diverted from
this ill-famed Anarchist trial. You, who, with honest hearts, took up our
defence, shall be told how matters stand. Our torturers want to conceal and
frustrate the good work which you did by making our martyrdom known to all
the world.
"Listen with your pure souls: In the minutes of the court-martial, held in
the accursed dungeon, our tortures, though distinctly told to our judges, are not
mentioned by one syllable.
"Listen, you with your honest hearts. In their zeal and love for justice our
torturers have published a series of lies. By means of these lies the inquisitors
want to confuse public opinion and suppress the truth.
"Read this, honest mer: They want us to sign a document by which we declare
that we have not been tortured, and they have resolved to obtain these signatures
from us by all means.

16
Spanish Atrocities.
"Good people of the world, we are innocent; yes, we are innocent!
"Did ever such a monstrous injustice take place? All good and right-feeling
men, in the name of all that you love in this world, save us from the power of
our executioners! Aid us in our helplessness! Think of our misery!
Fortress of Montjuich, March 11, 1897.
SEBASTIAN SUNYER.
"All good people are requested to copy this document and spread it all over
the world, that it may penetrate at last also to the Spanish papers.'
دو
This is not a letter from a victim of the old forgotten days of the Inquis-
ition, but from a living man, lying practically buried in the fortress, it is
true, written three weeks ago and published at the risk of further tortures
and death; the writer's name we have frequently mentioned as an author
of pamphlets (La Utopia, 1892; El Terco y el filosofo), and before his arrest
he prepared a Spanish edition of Kropotkin's Conquest of Bread. For three
months he has been lying under sentence of death; and a new crime is being
committed: we may almost say that they are now mentally tortured to
make them deny the physical tortures of last year.
of
In Eugene Sue's Wandering Jew we are shown, in the first part, how the
designs of greedy priests, supported by brute force alone, are frustrated; in
the second part, the same designs are achieved by slow moral poisoning done
by the priests. Of these two stages of clerical (and, for that matter, of State)
tactics we are reminded by what now happens: "Towards the end of Jan-
uary or early in February," we read in a letter to the Vorwarts (the paper
Liebknecht who maintained last year that Anarchists were "petted by the
bourgeois "), "four Jesuit fathers came to Montjuich Castle to convert the
prisoners. With Ascheri and Mas they apparently succeeded; as a reward
they now receive better food and treatment, and are allowed several hours
walking in the drill-ground. But Molas sent them about their business in
such a way that they did not call again. Sunyer did the same: when the
Jesuit father came to see him, Sunyer, without uttering a word, showed him
the wound where his testicles had been torn away, and then turned his back
upon him. The Jesuit stood for a few moments as if nailed to the spot, and
then left the cell in silence never to return."
A letter from another prisoner, printed in Les Temps Nouveaux (Paris),
says, "Unfortunately for our enemies, these fiendishly refined tortures gave
rise to a scene at the court-martial never to be forgotten; for, in spite of the
precautions taken-all doors closed, the accused securely handcuffed, forty-
eight gendarmes, armed to the teeth, each ready with a gag to stifle the
truth in the mouths of our comrades,-in spite of all this our friends bravely
did their duty; there was continuous exchange of defiances between counsel
and judges; truth and falsehood had a desperate struggle, in spite of the
precautions and the apparent superiority of reaction, the battle was half lost
for reaction and it turned back nearly as quick as it had advanced. No
more was said about the famous silver inkstand presented to the judge, Marzo,
which represented a superior officer crushing under his feet a dragon holding
in its mouth two Orsini bombs.
"This is what is being done. A committee of inquiry was formed to in-
vestigate the allegations of the tortured. This committee consists of six
members and is presided over by the chief general of Barcelona."

Spanish Atrocities
17
"These six individuals went into the dungeons where Ascheri, Molas,
Nogues, Luis Mas, Sunyer and Callis are kept, and laid before each of them
a declaration, fully written out, in these words:
"I, the undersigned, formally declare that I have not been tortured or ill-
treated by any of my warders; on the contrary, I have only to praise their
conduct. For these reasons I declare the statements in the press to be lies."
"In exchange for their signature they were promised:
"1. Grace of their life.
"2. Good wine, good bread, and good food until their acquittal, which
would soon be ordered from Madrid."
"None accepted save Ascheri, who was feeble enough to sign. In face of
the categorical refusal of the other prisoners, the members of the committee
changed their tactics, and begged and supplicated with no better result.
Then they begged of their victims to pardon their torturers, saying that it
was a misunderstanding. All replied by a categorical refusal; Ascheri said
nothing.".
This shows how this enquiry-which Sir Frank Lockwood so justly fears
in his letter "will not be a searching one,"-worse than a farce, is becom-
ing a new instrument of torture!
In another letter (to the Vorwarts) it is also recorded how Portas (lieutenant
of the gendarmes and immediate chief of the torturers) went about from cell
to cell craving for pardon and shamming remorse; he met only with contempt.
Meanwhile he found another victim. Captain Juan Morales, counsel for
Nogues, had challenged him to a duel; the government prohibited the duel
and relegated him to the reserve; upon this he shot himself. He had risen
from the ranks, and the Republican press honors his memory.
The reprint of further letters would but confirm the facts mentioned in
this and in previous numbers, and help only to initiate us into the refined
details of cruelties. There is a letter from J. Molas telling of nine days and
nights of torture, converting them from the innocent unconcerned persons
they were before into men accusing themselves and others of every conceiv-
able crime. A letter from F. Callis states that a military surgeon examined
him and saw his many wounds from tortures, before the trial.
Juan B. Oller (sentenced to nineteen years, one month, eleven days) tells
how, barbarously manacled, he had to move about for thirty-nine hours, his
only food dry codfish, and after this he was mercilessly flogged until blood
came from his mouth and nose. Roused again in the middle of the night, he
was beaten with sticks; when he could no longer walk he was placed erect
against the wall until he fell down exhausted, when he was kicked profusely
and then left with some food but no water; after being subjected to another
course of this horrible treatment intensified by excruciating thirst, he had
delusions and, in desperation, ate chalk from the walls and drank his own
urine and the paraffin from the lamp.-All this for not telling what he did,
not know himself: where one of the Anarchists was hiding. After that
they told him they found that he was of no importance, and warned him to
be silent about his treatment. "You bought Anarchist papers," Portas
said to him, "why not Catholic papers, why do you not like these?"

18
Spanish Atrocities
The clearest view of the inner side of the trial, which is, above all, a blow
aimed by the Spanish priests at free thought in every form, is given in an
article, "To the Inquisitors of Spain," by Tarrida del Marmol in the Revue
Blanche (Paris) of Feb. 1. The old saying that in the name of no cause
have so many crimes and murders been committed as in that of religion
-purporting to bring a message of love for mankind, is proved up to
the hilt. The same author gives endless details of the torture of insurgents
in the Philippine Islands, and he is preparing a book on Spanish rule, con-
taining more details and documents.
Among the hundreds of persons arrested since last summer there are
seventeen Republicans, one of whom is a former Deputy and one a former
minister of the government, Nic. Estevanez.
There is also a German locksmith among them (M. Hueffel of Cologne)
who, since 1891, has been arrested every time that a strike or an explosion
happens to take place. From his long letters to the Sozialist, we gather
many details of the previous tortures of the days of Pallas and Franch, of
the horrible insanitary dungeons, etc., etc. Again, in a letter to the Vorworts,
the instruments of torture are described; especially the implement for com-
pressing the skull, tearing the lips, etc.
We could quote from the Despertar long extracts from El Pais and La
Justicia of Madrid, also the stirring manifesto La Espana Salvage (Savage
Spain) to the Spanish people, published by the group "Jovenes Anarquistas"
of New York; protest meetings were also held in Switzerland, Norway and
elsewhere; but we will conclude, pointing out that by the publication of the
circumstances under which retractations are sought to be extorted by the
Spanish government, the utter infamy of that government becomes manifest.
Spain, the most Christian country (if it is not England that claims this
byword), and Turkey, the alleged most un- Christian country-in what respect
do they differ? Government and priestcraft are the same all the world over.
Was the king of Benin worse? We never heard, in any case, that he made
his victims sign denials of their tortures!
Let this latter fact above all be known, and spread Sunyer's appeal in spite
of the silence of press and politicians on this crime against humanity!
--Freedom, April 1897.
We are near the end of this tragedy. Since April 20, the Supreme Court
of Military Appeal of Madrid is re-examining the sentences passed in Decem-
ber by the Court-martial in the fortress of Montjuich. The Public Prose-
cutor of Madrid is a worthy colleague of the Prosecutor of Barcelona who
demanded that the eyes of the Court should be closed to reason! Instead
of nine he demands ten death sentences, and 20 years' penal servitude for five,
19 years 1 month 1 day for eight, 18 years 9 months 1 day for thirty-three
prisoners, whilst thirty should go free.
The correspondent of the Standard (April 22) who telegraphs these details
from Madrid' says: "Indeed, the principal testimony obtained for the prosecu-
tion was derived from the confessions of Ascheri and two other chief offenders."(?)
Since it is established beyond a doubt that these "confessious" were obtained
by unimaginable tortures, it becomes evident on what ground the whole fabric
of an imaginary conspiracy (the inner circle of the Carmen's Club, etc.) rests

Spanish Atrocities
19
Fresh letters are continually being received. FRANCISCO GANA, a Repub-
lican prisoner writes (see Temps Nouveaux, Paris, April 3) that on August 4
(the day of St. Domingo de Guzman, the founder of the Inquisition in Europe)
he and other prisoners were placed in separate cells and, after being hand-
cuffed, he was told to march quick from one end of the cell to the other,
being watched from the outside. "After 24 hours I felt intolerable pains
in my arms and hands. I asked them to take the handcuffs off for a little
while; they whipped me. I asked for water; they gave me dry codfish.
When I asked again for water, they replied by lashing me with whips all
over the body and said: if I would declare I had thrown the bomb, I should
have bread and wine and would be allowed to sleep. I replied that I was
not and never had been an Anarchist, because I abhorred these proceedings
[probably he means violence], and that I was a Republican. They said that
I was sure to tell them the truth for this was only the first part of the torture."
He passed in this way four days and nights until delirium overtook him.
"On the morning of August 9, the officials entered and demanded the name
of the bomb-thrower. I said I did not know of what they talked. Upon this
one of them tied up my genital parts and compressed them. This was, as they
told me, the second part [of the torture]. I lost consciousness, and when I
came to, the nails of my feet gave me pain; I do not know what they had
done with me. What a horrible night! what pitiful cries I heard coming
from the other cells! These are tortures which it is impossible to resist."
Finally, after he had tried suicide, Portas (the chief torturer) told him,
"You see, Gana, I had been told that you were one of the chief actors, but
to-day I know better; this is a false declaration. I know that you are not
an Anarchist, only a Republican, etc.; all this is a joke......" Then they
took off the handcuffs, gave him water and soup and left him to sleep-on
the bare floor wet with his own blood.-"I could not sleep, so horrible were
the cries which I heard."
Another letter from JOSE MOLAS (sentenced to death) describes in a similar
way how the tortures commenced on August 6, by 36 hours marching round
the cell. Being unable to continue he was beaten and whipped, finally thrown
down, gagged and knocked about the head. All this continued until August
15 (nine days and nights). Then he was led before Portas, who said, "If you
want your sufferings to cease and to get something to eat, you will sign this
declaration." He signed it, but when brought before the judge he declared
that it was all wrong. Portas then ordered him to be tortured again; this
time fire was used.
One of his torturers was the warder Magans; he and Estorqui (another
warder) are decorated-owing to their merits in torturing, in 1894, the
Anarchist prisoners arrested in connection with the Liceo explosion; this
decoration gives them a monthly extra income of 20 francs; for this miser-
able sum their colleagues probably envy them and try to come up to their
standard of bestiality!
Of other documents I mention Some facts on the infamies of Montjuich,
dated March 10, written by a prisoner; a summary of all the events, distri-
buted as a manifesto all over Spain; a French translation is published in the
Pére Peinard of April 18. Also a declaration signed by all the condemned

20
Spanish Atrocities
and sent to the Ateneo Barcelonese, the Catalonian scientific society; after
being photographed it was laid before the judicial authorities.
A special number of Dr. Creaghe's Oprimido, entitled La Inquisicion en
Espana (Buenos Ayres) is also given to this subject:
Seldom indeed, if we except the conspiracy of silence of the English daily
press, has a subject of such revolting character been so widely made known,
and yet it is feared all is of no avail, and the next fortnight may bring news
that the worst has happened.-Freedom, May 1897.
English Protests.
On Feb. 17, a deputation consisting of Edward Carpenter, Walter
Crane, Rev. Stewart Headlam, Herbert Burrows, H. Salt and J. Perry
called at the Spanish Embassy to lay before the Ambassador a protest
against the tortures inflicted on the Anarchists of Barcelona. Being
told that they could not see him, they returned the next morning (save
E. Carpenter, who had to leave London) joined by R. B. Cunninghame
Grahame and Mrs. Mallett. A butler told them they could see the
Ambassador's private secretary in the afternoon. This was not found
to be convenient for the deputation, so the following letter was sent :
To His Excellency, Count Casa Valencia, Ambassador to the Court of St. James.
Grosvenor Gardens.
YOUR EXCELLENCY,
I beg to enclose for your perusal and consideration au extract from
the Daily Chronicle of Tuesday January 26, 1897, in which an account is given
of the tortures to which alleged Anarchist prisoners, against whom nothing has
been proved, have been subjected in Barcelona in order to compel them to ac-
knowledge themselves guilty and also to accuse their friends. The deputation
who called at the Embassy to-day was composed of British citizens, who have
satisfied themselves that the accounts of the tortures are true, The facts were
recently laid before a large public meeting in London, at which an indignant
protest was made against such practices being resorted to by authorities under
a civilised government. The deputation represented various schools of thought
and its members wished to lay the facts before your Excellency in the hope that
for the honor of Spain you will be able by transmitting our protest to your gov
ernment to secure the cessation and prevention of practices which are totally
opposed to all human feeling and principles.
As we were not fortunate enough to see your Excellency, may I beg that you
will kindly appoint a time at which we can wait upon you personally.
(Signed) On behalf of the deputation
Respectfully yours,-J. PERRY.
The Ambassador neither sent a reply or acknowledgement to this or
of the three following letters.
any
To His Excellency, the Spanish Ambassador to the Court of St. James.
February 22, 1897.
I beg to draw your Excellency's attention to a letter I forwarded you on
Thursday last, 18th inst., on behalf of English citizens.
0

Spanish Atrocities
21
Trusting it
I have neither had an acknowledgment of or reply to the same.
will receive your immediate attention, anticipating an early reply,
Very respectfully yours,-J. PERRY.
February 26, 1897.
Your Excellency,-I beg to draw your attention to my letter of the 18th inst.
to which I have as yet had no acknowledgment. I desire to state that it is my
intention to publish the correspondence, and am therefore awaiting your reply.
Respectfully yours,-J. PERRY.
March 13th, 1897.
Your Excellency,-I beg to draw your attention to my communications since
the 18th of February of this year, bearing on the alleged torture of political
prisoners in Spain.
I should be pleased if you would kindly let me have an acknowledgement-if
not reply to the same. Trusting to hear from you soon,
Respectfully yours,-J. PERRY.
A copy of Freedom (Feb.) was sent to the Marquis of Salisbury with
the following letter:
February 19, 1897,
SIR,-Enclosed please find an account of the alleged tortures on Spanish
Anarchists, which I trust you will carefully peruse and give your serious con-
sideration.
Respectfully yours,
The reply was:
JOSEPH PERRY.
Foreign Office, February 24, 1897.
SIR,-I am directed by the Marquess of Salisbury to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 19th inst. forwarding a copy of the journal Freedom, contain-
ing statements as to tortures said to have been inflicted by the Spanish author-
ities on the Anarchists concerned in the bomb outrage at Barcelona.
I am, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
T. H. SANDERSON.
Joseph Perry, Esq.
In reply to a similar communication, Sir Frank Lockwood wrote:
26 Lennox Gardens, Pont Street. S. W.
21 February, 1897,
SIR,
I thank you for sending me the paper containing an account of the in-
famous treatment to which the Anarchists in Spain are alleged to have been sub-
jected. I see that an inquiry has been promised, but I fear it will not be a
searching one.
Yours truly
FRANK LOCKWOOD.
Royal Courts of Justice, Room 551,
February 24, 1897.
DEAR SIR,
dinom In reply to your letter, Sir Frank Lockwood directs me to say that
unless some of those who were treated as it is alleged so barbarously were Brit-
ish subjects he does not se how any question could be put in the House of
Commons.
Yours obedienly,
Joseph Perry, Esq.
R. E. BARRATT.

22
Spanish Atrocities
[To which we might append the question: whether the Armenians
and Cretans, whose case has been almost daily before the House of
Commons during the last year, are British subjects either?]
Sir Charles Dilke wrote:
76 Sloane Street, S. W., Feb. 16, 1867.
DEAR SIR,-I have too many questions to take up new ones, and have not a
sufficient knowledge of Spanish affairs to be inclined to go into what would be
to me a new question as regards that country. There is plenty of scope for all
the labor that I can give in connection with countries as to which I am better
informed.
With respect,
Joseph Perry Esq.
I am truly yours,-CHARLES W. DILKE.
Since that Sir Charles Dilke has more closely examined the matter
and has now promised his support.
A question was asked in the House of Commons on Feb. 22, by Mr.
Patrick O'Brien.
"Mr. P. O'Brien asked the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs whether he
had received any confirmation of the report that torture was applied to several
prisoners in the fortress of Montjuich, Barcelona, during December 1896;
whether any of the sufferers were British subjects; and, if so, whether he pro-
posed to make any representations to the Spanish government on the matter."
"Mr. Curzon:-'Beyond a newspaper report which was sent to me by the hon.
member, we have heard nothing of the matter alluded to. If any evidence
reaches us indicating that British subjects have been injured, of course we should
inquire.'"-Standard, Feb. 23, 1897. Suppressed by the Times, Daily Chron-
icle, etc.
Since then a Committee has been formed (consisting of members of
the 1.L.P., S.D.F., Fabian Society, Friends of Russian Freedom, Hu-
manitarian League and London Anarchists) which is preparing a further
large meeting. The new facts disclosed in the letters frrom the fortress
in this month's Freedom ought to rouse an universal protest against
this greatest outrage upon political prisoners of our time.
P. S. We now learn (by telegraph) that the Supreme
Court-Martial has decreed the execution of NINE instead of
EIGHT prisoners. This is all the result of a three month's
agitation all over the world.
The following resolution was unanimously carried at the May Day Celelebra.
ion delegate meeting, held at 337 Strand, on Sunday, April 25th:-
"This meeting of delegates, representing various large and important indus-
tries and various schools of social and political thought in Great Britain, hereby

Spanish Atrocities
23
We
places on record its emphatic protest against the practice of tortures now being
inflicted on Anarchist prisoners in Barcelona, Spain, with the purpose of obtaining
confessions of crime and accusations of complicity against innocent men.
are convinced the revival of the inquisition in Spain is again alive to-day with all
the concomitant horrors that accompanied its origin in the fifteenth century, and
in view of the uncontradicted and undeniable allegations, we feel compelled to
regard the British Authorities or any other European power that maintains
diplomatic relations with that country while closing its eyes to these charges, as
being accomplices in the revival of this barbaric custom."
The I.L.P. Conference, at Essex Hall, Essex Street, Strand, passed the follow-
ing resolution on Tuesday, April 27th, 1597 :-
"That this meeting of delegates of the I.L. P. of Great Britain records its
horror of the tortures to which the alleged Anarchist prisoners have been subject
in Barcelona, in order to compel them to acknowledge themselves guilty, and
also to accuse their friends, and protests with utmost indignation against the
revival of inquisitorial torments in a country that claims respect and autonomy
as a civilised power."
Revival of the Inquisition.
We now appeal to every person-no matter what their political
or social views to assist us in bringing before public notice
details of these abominable tortures perpetrated on Anarchist prisoners
now lodged in the fortress of Montjuich, Barcelona, Spain, whose only
crime has been their passive beliefs. To fulfil this purpose we have
decided to call a large protest meeting at an early date; for which we
need financial assistance. Without a favorable response in this direc-
tion we fear a great public duty will have been neglected.-(Signed)-
SPANISH ATROCITIES COMMITTEE:
EDWARD CARPENTER, WALTER CRANE, CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM, Rev.
STEWART HEADLAM, MRS. MALLETT, MRS. DRYHURST, HERBERT BUR-
ROWS, J. F. GREEN, HENRY S. SALT (Humanitarian League), JAMES
MACDONALD (London Trades Council), PAUL CAMPBELL (Independent
Labour Party), W. G. BARWICK (Social Democratic Federation), JOSEPH
PERRY, Freedom Anarchist-Communist Group.
The Treasurer of the "Spanish Atrocities Committee" is HERBERT
BURROWS; the Secretary is JOSEPH PERRY, 7, Millman Street, London,
W.C., to whom all subscriptions and enquiries should be addressed.

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