Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-06
LAY DOWN ARMS
ON PRINCIPLE
INSURGENTS HOLD IT IS THEIR
DUTY TO YIELD
Disarmament In Cuba, II 10 Thoeeht,
VIII BE Completed by Tonight.
csmasuey May Give
Trouble
Nv Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
HAVANA, oct. 5.-whlle the dis
armament Of the rebels will not be COM
pleted Saturday night, It Is now con-
fidently expected that the entire opera
ton will be finished by Monday, with
the exception of Puerto Principe pro-
vince, which has been less affected than
any other province by the rebellion, but
which is now a favorite region for
marauding bands which can more cor
rectly be called bandits than rebels.
Although the surrender Of guns has
not been made compulsory either by
the provisional government or the dis
arming commission, rebel commanders
have all given their followers to under
stand that the laying down Of their
arms was question of duty
The result of this has been. that the
number of rifles surrendered is larger,
in proportion to the number of men
disbanded, than the government ex-
pected.
For instance, 800 rebels disbanded in
Pinar del Rio province up to today,
have turned in 900 guns Governor Taft
regards this proportion as rather better
than the average, but reports from
Santa Clara indicate that nearly all
the guns of General Guzman's COM
band have been surrendered A great
majority of the rebel rifles are old and
poor and many diIapidated weapons
have been turned in.
Dlsbanding Proceeds
In Pinar del Rio practically all the
rebels have been disarmed and have
returned to their homes. In western
and southern Havana the work of
disbanding is going on steadily and
probably will be completed by Satur-
day.
Assistant Secretary of State Bacon
and Captain Mccoy will visit eastern
Havana Saturday and hope to COM
plete disarmament there without loss
of time.
General Mintero, commander of the
forces In eastern Havana, visited the
palace today and agreed to the dis
armament conditions
Matanzas province has NO insurgents
with the exception of a few of Mon
tero's followers.
In Santa Clara province disarmament
is going on vigorously, and the dis
armament commissioners and the pro-
visional government are received with
every evidence of good will.
Disarmament has been completed on
the Santiago province with the ex-
ception Of small forces in the vicinity
of Manzanillo. who will disband to-
morrow.
Uneasy About camaguey
Governor Taft said today he believed
that the only region where there was
a possibility of trouble to be Comaguey.
Cattle lifting and depredations to 9TH
er property are going on in this section.
The disarmament operation conducted
today in western Havana by Major
Eugene F. Ladd of the disarmament
commission was not all smooth sailing.
After the disarming of General Cas-
tillo's PERSONAL escort, which produced
fifty guns, Major Ladd proceeded to
disarm the men of Del CastiIlo's bri-
gade commands.
Upon meeting General Arancia at
Santiago de Las Vegas Major Ladd
was told that his force of 800 had al
ready dispersed, but that $50 guns
would be turned over this evening.
When Major Ladd returned. however,
only forty guns were forthcoming.
Major Ladd suspected the subordinates
of concealing weapons and threatened
to take the matter up with Governor
Taft The subordinates at once prom
ised to produce the remainder of the
guns.