Evening star., 1933-09-16
BY COL. FREDERICK PALMER.

BY Radio to The Star.
HAVANA, September 16.-The COM
plete isolation of the deposed army Of
ficers at the Hotel National and the
resignation of Col. Julio Aguado as Sec
retary of war are accepted In Cuba as
premonitary signals of further import
ant actions, combinations or decisions.
This seemed more likely as a new
sensation was due. Col. Aguado dis
liked the idea of the arrest of former
President de Cespedes' Chief of Staff
MendeZ, who later was released, and
favored allowing the deposed army Of
flcers to come and 60 and receive their
friends and families, but Batista former
sergeant, who is now chief of staff, as
the head of the revolutionary. army,
took the sterner view.
The officers stood in a row along the
railing of the hotel grounds at dusk as
interested spectators while BatlSta
guard was refusing to allow anybody
to enter or leave without a pass, thus
ending the country club party and ef-
fecting a real siege. The former COM
manders could match their former SOL
diers in hobnobbing with a group OF
radical wing students who have been
much in evidence the last few days.
Cleavage Grows Keener.
In a community where sensitiveness
to any change is so prompt and acute,
the cleavage between the student-soldier
groups which put Grau San Martin
into power and the other factions
seemed to become hourly sharper as
did the pressure for the President to
recognize the other factions and COM
pose their increasingly bitter differences
lest some faction start shooting.
Against the new government are th'
Conservative party, under Mario G
Menocal the Liberal under Carlo
Mendieta. the right wing of the A. B. c
and all the Conservative elements. The!
place their hope in the Presidents re
ported conference with leaders Of th'
different factions as the inception O.
coalition government, which vii
carry over the period until the calling
CT a constituent assembly and the en-
suing national elections.
Menocal, Mendieta and Mariana
Gomez, as candidates for President, viii
find this satisfactory bridge for theil
ambitions, and the right wing Of tht
A. B. c. will find it so for its reform
program These elements are beint
drawn together by the situation which
some fear, holds the possibility tina
Batista, with the army behind him
might declare himself dictator. The.
| state that stranger things have hap
pened as sequence to revolutions.
Batista Shows Control.
The fact is that Batista has the onl,
organized and armed force, consisting
of 5000 men. in Cuba, and he has beer
impressing the public with his grip OF
their loyalty by bringing to the cit.
an officer and soldiers he reports hav
ing captured in their revolt of Thurs
day in Pinar Del Rio.
Grau San Martins sister, who woult
be the bachelor Presidents hostess
has not yet moved into the Presidential
palace At best she would take onl!
two or three dress suitcases, and sht
prefers to remain in her own hcme un
til she is more certain of permanent
residence in the palace.
The sergeants and students planned
and achieved the revolt that overthrev
De Cespedes. The students are being
armed and drilled for the express pur'
pose of protecting their peoples revo
lutionary government against all fac
tions, and the students directorate re.
mains confident that the appeals to th'
Students Led by Leon.
"Give us time-we have been ir
power only eight days." said Reuber
Leon, spokesman for the student group
To this medical student Of rs belong!
the distinction of being the leader O.
the directorial body of undergraduate
students Of the University of Havana
which has been closed for three years
For eight days Leon and his comrade
have been the masters of Cuba in fac
| if not in name. He intimated that tn,
elders who are always preaching patti
ence to youth should practice it nov
| that youth has taken the place of ag
in the seats of the mighty in compan.
with their fellow conspirators, Sergt
Batista and his soldiers.
With mobile lips and large blacl
counterpart of the American colleg
strike leader idealist and campus politi
clan.
He and his comrades put Grau Sal
Martin, Icons professor Of psychology
in the chief professors chair at tn
presidential palace because they like
him and he understood their ideal.
They direct the policy Of his lecture
until they are able to provide him witt
the textbook of the new constitution.
Want New Basic Law.
1--WE want to begin work on that ne,
constitution immediately" said Leor
I'VE estimate it may take us IS day
but we hope to finish in co."
The students directory of 80, whicl
won the most extraordinary colleg
strike in history has an executive com
mittee of eight, with Leon leading tn
list. A student of freshman age act
as buffer In the corridor of com
mittee headquarters while his youn
sister, bachelor of arts from Havan
Institute, says she enjoys helping he
brother in any way she can.
The youngest undergraduate on tn
Executive Committee is 81. and the ag
of the oldest, 81, is explained by hi
expulsion from the university for anti
Machadista activities before Machad
closed the university. =
1T is untrue" said Leon, that "