Press statement : the bombing of Guernica (draft)

              PRESS STATEMENTS.
April 28, 1937.
The General Council of the Trades Union Congress and the National Executive of the Labour Party issued the following statement today (Wednesday):-  
The dreadful sufferings of the Spanish people have reached a climax of horror and shame in the criminal bombing of Guernica by German airplanes under the command of the rebel generals.     British Labour denounces this monstrous crime, perpetrated upon the defencless [defenceless] Basque city with no shadow of military reason or excuse, as an outrage upon humanity and a violation of the principles of civilisation. The ruthless slaughter of men, women and children driven from their ruined homes, and systematically shot down in cold blood by the German air-raiders, is a manifestation of the merciless and inhuman spirit which animates the rebel forces and their Nazi and Fascist accomplices, and of the savage hatred felt particularly against the liberty-loving Basques for their heroic defence of Bilbao.
The General Council of the Trades Union Congress and the National Executive of the Labour Party in the name of the organised working class, declare that the authors of this outrage are criminal murderers.
Civilised opinion throughout the worl [world] will hold the responsible for this crime.
The two National Committees call special attention to the