BLOODSHED IN CUBA

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 263, 4 October 1933, Page 7

BLOODSHED IN CUBA

WORST IN HISTORY. DEATH AND INJURY. WIDESPREAD UNREST. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegrapn.—Copyright.) HAVANA, Oct. 2.

Bullets still spattered Havana’s streets on Monday as nightfall failed to bring an end to the fighting after the bloodiest day in the city’s history. While the official estimates of the dead are unavailable, > few believe that the total will be less’ than 75, including an American, Mr Robert Lotspe:sch, of London, Ohio, manager of Swift International, who was shot in the chest in an apartment building while watching the battle.

Snipers and soldiers exchanged shots in every area of the city in a renewal of hostilities after attempts at a truce in the beleaguered and shell-torn National Hotel failed. The truce at the hotel, which lasted only while the white flag was displayed from the roof, seemed to precipitate the spread of battle over an undertermined area.

The building of the Ford Motor Company adjoining the scene of hostilities was struck by a shell intended for the hotel.

The best obtainable estimate of the dead included 35 to 40 soldiers, 10 of the officers in the hotel, the remainder being students and passers-by. Hundreds of people were wounded, and tlie city’s hospitals have been taxed since a few hours after the battle which began at dawn. All up-town business places were closed as snipers fired on soldiers from roofs and housetops. Heavy firing is reported in the suburbs. An unconfirmed and unofficial report says that the A.B.C. Secret Society' had started a revolution. Colonel Fulgencio Baptista, head of the army under President San Martin, told the Press, however, that lfe blamed the officers for starting the battle. He said the entrance to the hotel of a truck carrying ammunition caused the army to issue and bring up reinforcements, upon which firing began. The A.B.C. accused the Communists of doing the house-top shooting, which held the city in terror as the night progressed. STUDENTS IN THE VAN. SANGUINARY WARFARE. NEW YORK, Oct. 2. The Havana correspondent of the New York Times says that open san guinary warfare gripped the city tonight, as the enlisted personnel of the army 7, supporting a student army and the Government of President San Martin, successfully drove some 400 of the old regime army and navy officers from the National Hotel, only to meet a serious counter-attack from large sections of the civil population. At least 119 were killed and 200 wounded in to-day’s fighting, wdiich is continuing to-night. Late in the afternoon the officers hoisted a white flag. As the soldiers received their surrender, sniping started from the upper floor of the hotel. - The soldiers immediately shot down ten officers, and opened machine gun fire on the surrounding buildings, wounding thirty-four civilians and endangering thousands of others. While the soldiers were conducting the surrendered officers to a nearby fortress, they were fired on by civilians. Some of the soldiers said they _ had planned to slaughter the remaining officers because they were not allowed to kill the officials who conducted the four weeks’ siege in the hotel. It is said that the A.8.C., the student revolutionary organisation, is determined to overthrow the Martin Government. To-night they organised into two units, and from automobiles shot soldiers on sight. The fate of the officers transported to the fortress is unknown. Many shots were heard, and all may have been killed. A further message from Havana says that the Chief of Police estimates that not more than 100 were killed, and 200 wounded, in the hotel battle, but he is unable to say how many were killed and wounded in file street fighting.