Evening star., 1947-09-30
Cuban Senate Probes
Disrupted Expedition.
To End TrujiIIo Rule
BY a. Associated Press

- HAVANA, Cuba, Sept. 30
Cuban Army authorities said to-
~day that a 1,500-man expedi-
>ctionary force poised to overthrow
President Rafael Trujillo of the
Dominican Republic had been
broken up.
= Col. Oscar Diaz, the army's chief
investigator, said some of the plot
ters conspired against the Cuban
government after their plan to in
wade the Dominican Republic had
failed.
The Cuban Senate Immediately
launcned an investigation of the
WHOLE affair Col. Diaz said he had
turned over to the Supreme Tribunal
many documents in the case
$50 Members Picked Up.
Col. Diaz said 800 members of the
expedition had been picked up,
naked, unarmed and without food
and water. on Guinchos Cay, sand
spit so miles off the north Cuban
coast 300 miles east of Havana. He
said II bombing planes also were
seized. The men were brought to the
camp prison at Camp Columbia,
Army headquarters in Havana.
They said they were put down on
the cay after refusing to obey an
order from the expeditions COM
mander-issued after the party put
to sea-to attack the Cuban Navy if
1t were sighted
Gen. Genovevo Perez, the Cuban
Army's chief, announced after a
conference with President Ramon
Grau San Martin that two of the
expeditions ships had surrendered
at Antilla, an East Coast Cuban port
not far from the extreme northern
tip of the island
These ships, bearing about 800
more men, we're brought to Havana
early this morning, Gen. Perez said.
Leader Is Named.
Col. Diaz said the expeditionary
force, composed mainly of Domini-
cans, Venezuelans and Cubans, was
headed by Orlando Masferrer, a
Cuban who had been expelled from
the Communist Party. Col. Diaz
said the same man headed the al
legged conspiracy against Cuba.
Col. DiaZ, after informing report
ers Of the developments at a news
conference, permitted the reporters
to interview the prisoners. From
them, the reporters pieced together
p this story:
. An expeditionary force numbering
about $500 men was organized
sometime in late July with the OBJ
ject Of upsetting President Trujillo,
who has run the Dominican repub-
lie since the 1880 revolution there.
It was equipped with ammunition,
automatic rifles. dynamite, hand
grenades, bazookas, several .37-milli-
meter cannon 0-pounders) and four
ships.
Planes Reported Provided.
Some of the detained men said
they understood the governments Of
Venezuela and Guatemala and some
high officials of the Cuban govern
ment were financing the expedition,
and that. ample planes and ships
would be provided.
Some of those detained blamed
the expeditions failure on what
they called Intervention by the
United States.
(The United States State De- :.
partment announced July % that
1t had heard about rumors that
an army was preparing to sail
from Cuba to invade the Domin-
ican Republic. August 2 the
State Department passed along
aEother rumor that seven fighter
planes-United States Army sur
plus-were poised to leave Flor
ida for "a Caribbean destina-
tion."O
Col. DiaZ, when asked about the
possible motives for the alleged con-
spiracy against the Cuban govern
ment, said it was possibly to OBJ
? scure the electoral process" Cuba
. has presidential and congressional
! elections scheduled for next June.
! The State Department today ex-
pressed qualification at the ending
of threat to peace in the Carib-
bean by Cuban capture of an ex-
peditionary force reported sailing
for an attack on the Dominican Re-
public.
Michael j. McDermott, State De-
partment press officer, said this
Government had not been informed
officially of the arrest or detention
: of any Americans in connection
: with the plot.
q Mr. McDermott said the State
. Department had heard general
( rumours of revolutionary plotting
against the Dominican government
3 as long ago as last January, and
, had alerted the Customs Bureau and
other agencies concerned to pre-
vent the illegal export Of any war
material from this country.