The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-03-30
NO DEFINITE NEWS
OF 7-DAY BATTLE
Villas Followers Are Becoming Nervous
Over the Lack of News from
the Rebel Leader.

Chihuahua, March 30s--For seven days
Francisco Villa, military leader of the
constitutionalists' revolution, has waged
La battle against Torreon. For six days
the fight was the bitterest and the loss
of life the heaviest in the recent history
of Mexico.
Judging from the meagre press de-
spatches received from the front and
the stories of slaughter told to-day by
the many wounded in the hospitals here,
the constitutionalists, svmpathizers and
rebel officers here are again anxious as
to the fate of their leader and the rem
nant of 10000 men, who marched to Tor
reon with him.
| No word from Villa came to-day to
relieve the anxiety. Reports that heavy
reinforcements had been brought in to
relieve General Refugio Velaseo, federal
commander at Torreon, were received
here with misgivings. The fact that no
word has been received direct from Villa
| is the cause OF the greatest anxiety.
/ When the advantage was with him in
| the past, he has always allowed news
paper correspondents free access to the
| telegraph lines, but when he met with
reyerses Villa would allow no news sent
over the wires.
| The report originated from one OF the
| hospitals, after more wounded came in.
| that General Villa had been wounded
slightly and compelled to retire from
the front. The report was based merely
on the word of a wounded soldier, who.
however, insisted he had seen Villa
wounded. He declared that for moral
effect the news was withheld from the
ranks of the rebel army
A German military observer who ar
rived to-day from the front said:
Lured by Federals.
"The federal army lured us right into
Gomez Palacio, a suburb north of Tor
reon, before they opened fire. Then they
let loose such hail of rifle and ma
chine gun shots as would have complete
Iy demoralized an ordinary Mexican
army. The men fell by the score. A
cotton bale platform by the railroad
tracks was 50 covered with dead reb-
els that one could not walk across it
without stepping on body. General
Villa had such large army that he felt
he could afford to sacrifice many men
to get a foothold. Almost the whole
Zaragoza brigade, under General Aguirre
Benavides, was thus wiped out, although
think General Benayides escaped"
An elaborate three days program for
the reception of General Carranza on
his arrival was abandoned in part to-
day because of the presence here of so
many wounded. 1t is believed here that
Carranza will not come to Chihuahua un-
til he is satisfied that General Villa will
remain in the South. as a meeting of
the two revolutionary leaders is not
looked upon as opportune at this time.
General Villas delay in taking Tor
reon, it is said, has revived the belief
that, should the Huerta forces drive him
north, something in the nature of
northern republic, embracing the states
bordering on the United States will be
established. The plan of separating the
north from the south of Mexico has long
been contemplated by some of the rebel
leaders. They contend that the north
and south in the last half-century have
developed along different lines, both po
litically and industrially.
Financial Crisis.
Unless decisive results are achieved
soon the financial affairs of the rebel
territory will reach crisis, according
to men in authority. Six million pesos
in fiat money are in circulation in the
states Of Chihuahua, Durango and parts
of Zacatecas, and this money is stead |
lily decreasing in purchasing power with
no prospective reserve banking, while |
more is being issued. Some of the smell
ters and mines are unable to obtain help |
because they pay in rebel currency at |
the same rate as when a peso was worth |
40 cents in United States currency. The |
present value of a peso note is about |
Is cents.
Despite assurances given by Governor |
Uhao to the state department that Luis
Terrazas, jr., would not be executed, ii |
was learned definitely here that Terra
zas was threatened with execution twice |
within the last eight days. He was
saved from death within "a hours on
one occasion only Through the efforts of |
representative of foreign govern |
ment, who pleaded all one night that the |
prisoner be given an extension of three |
DAYS. The three days extension was
granted and later through another in
fuenee the talk of execution was tenn |
porarily dropped.