Evening star., 1933-10-02
AMERICAN IS SLAIN
IN CUBAN WARE ARE
Twenty Soldiers Lose Lives
in Bombardment of Of.
ficers' Hotel.
Continued From First Page.)

entrenched themselves in the large,
ornate hostelry, around which a guard
Of their former soldiers was thrown.
The officers cooked their own meals
and performed many other services for
themselves, all the while refusing to
obey a government ultimatum that they
leave the inn or else lose their army
posts.
As dawn was breaking a sudden, and
not Immediately explainable, furry OF
machine gun fire occurred, both from
and on the hotel.
Gunboat Stands BY.
A detachment of light artillery
opened fire on the National at 7:10
am. as the gunboat Patria moved
through the heavy surf of the harbor to
be nearer the hotel.
T. w. Hollister, an American photog-
rapher, and Bruno Camel of the Havana
Associated Press staff, crawled over the
roof OF an apartment building a few
hundred yards from the hotel in an
effort to witness the bombardment. A
dozen shots struck the roof a few feet
from them.
After about an hour the firing from
the hotel seemed to be subsiding. but
the soldiers below kept up a steady fire
from machine guns. rifles and artillery.
A heavy reinforcement joined the
troopers, who have besieged their one
time superior officers since the middle
Of August
All traffic along the Malecon drive
nfc
! blocks from the hotel
At 7:35 am. an Associated Press re-
porter saw seven soldiers lying wounded
or dead in the streets.
Americans living in apartment build
lngs near the hotel were endangered as
bullets broke the windows
Occupants of the Lopez Serrano
Apartments said one civilian resident.
believed to be an American, and a Gu
ban janitor, were shot.
The Dollar liner President Taft en-
tered the harbor at full speed when the
battle was at its height
time bomb exploded under a street
car in uptown Havana earlier, after law
enforcement agencies came to grips
with factions agitating for a general
strike.
There were no casualties, but the ex-
plosion caused soldiers, sailors and DO
licemen. cooperating in a drive against
Communists. to redouble their precau-
tions against a strike movement in pro-
test against the Staying of six persons
during Communist demonstration last
Friday.
Street car and bus operators had de-
! cided to postpone striking after Chief
Of Police Franco had warned against it.
but some members Of the union had
insisted the strike start at once.
Soldiers, sailors and policemen ar
rested 10 men they called Communists
and undesirable foreigners, and Franco
and Chief of Staff Batista met to plan
war against Communism and lawless-
ness.
Army headquarters ordered provincial
forces to use every effort to curb labor
agitation. Troops patrolled Santiago
after the National Confederation of
Labor, which includes unions among
street car men, stevedores, factory
workers and clerks, ordered 10000
workers throughout the province to
strike on instructions from Havana.
Cuban Ku Klux Formed.
A new secret society. the "Ku Klux
Klan Kubano." circularized the white
population in Havana, urging whites to
Join an active protest against "the in
science and decisive violence" Of colored
persons, saying the organization will
use violence without scruples If that Is
necessary to defend homes.
A new order provides for the dis
| arming of all civilians except those pos
sessing special permits.
One street car worker was wounded
when sailors dispersed tram workers
meeting in a private house. The sailors
said they fired after the workers had
attacked them.
Forty men were arrested at Casa
blanca, near Havana, and many others
were detained in other communities al
the outset of the anti Communist drive