Havana Sees Continued Bloodshed

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7278, 4 October 1933, Page 7

Havana Sees Continued Bloodshed

Upwards of Hundred Believed Killed

CITY HELD IN TERROR

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph —Copyright. Received Tuesday, 7 p.m. HAVANA, Oct. 2. Bullets still spattered Havana’s streets on Monday as nightfall failed. to bring an end to the battling after the bloodiest day in the city’s history. While official estimates of the dead are not available, few believe that the total is less than 75, including an American, Robert Lotspeisch, 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 -over the width and breadth of the city in a renewal of hostilities after attempts at a truce in tho beleaguered and shell-tom National Hotel had failed. Tho building of tbe Pord Motor Company, adjoining the scene of hostilities, was struck by a shell intended for the hotel. The be3t obtainable estimate of the dead included 35 to 40 soldiers and ten officers in the hotel, the remainder being students and passersby. Hundreds were wounded, and the city’s hospitals have been taxed since a few hours after tho battle began at dawn. A trace at the hotel, which lasted only while a white flag was displayed from the roof, seemed to precipitate the spread of the battle over an undetermined area. All uptown business places were closed as snipers fired on soldiers from roofs and house-tops. Heavy firing reported in the suburbs was not confirmed and an unofficial report said that the A.B.C. Secret Society had started a revolution. Colonel Fulgencio Baptista, head of the Army under President Grau San Martin, told the Press, however, that he blamed 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 the firing began. Tlie A.B.C. Society accused the Communists of doing tho house-top shooting, which held the city in terror as tho night progressed.

Street Fighting Casualties

Undetermined

Received Tuesday, 10.50 p.m. HAVANA, Oct. 3.

Tho Chief of Police estimated that not more than 100 wero killed and 200 wounded in the hotel battle. He is unable to say how many wmre killed or wounded in the street fighting. All the officers in the hotel surrendered peacefully finally and were taken cither to prison or to hospitals.

Sanguinary Warfare Grips the City INDISCRIMINATE SHOOTING ON ALL SIDES. Received Tuesday, 10.50 p.m. NEW YORK, Oct. 2. The New York Times' Havana correspondent says that open, sanguinary warfare gripped the city to-night as tho enlisted personnel of the Army, supporting the student army and the Government of President Ran Martin, successfully drove some 400 of the old regime Army and Navy olliccrs from tho 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, which is continuing to-night. Late in the afternoon, officers hoisted the white flag. As the soldiers received their surrender, sniping started from an upper floor of the hotel. The soldiers immediately shot down ten officers and opened machine-gun fire on the surrounding buildings, wounding 34 civilians and endangering thousands of others.

While the soldiers were conducting the surrendered officers to a nearby fortress, they wero fired on by civilians. Some of the soldiers said they planned to slaughter the, remaining officers, because they were not allowed to kill the officials who conducted the four weeks’ soigo in the hotel. It is said that the A.B.C. student revolutionary organisation is determined to overthrow the San Martin Government. To-night they organised two units and from automobiles were shooting soldiers on sight. The fate of the officers transported to the fortress is unknown. Many shots were heard, indicating they may all have been killed.

Officers Barricaded in Hotel

HAVANA, October 2

Shortly after President San Martiln entered his office, defiant officers entrenched themselves iu an hotel, around which a guard of their former soldiers was thrown. Th officers cooked their own meals, performed many other services for themselves, and refused to obey the Government ultimatum to leave the hotel or lose their army posts. More than twenty soldiers and one United States citizen spectator were killed on Monday, in bitter fighting between army and navy officers barricaded in the National Hotel and soldiers firing from many points outside, during a battle raging for hours. Two army tanks opened heavy machine-gun firo around the hotel. Tho firing ceased. in the afternoon. Some property feiaagg •>..