CUBA: Cry Day

A series of gritos (“cries to arms”) supply the names for several Latin American independence days. Mexico celebrates each Sept. 16 her Grito de Dolores, recalling the cry to arms against Spain raised at Hidalgo Dolores in 1810 by “the Father of the Mexican Revolution,” Priest Miguel Hidalgo & followers. Cuba’s Grito de Baire, anniversary of the uprising against Spain by Cuban villagers at Baire in 1895, is Feb. 24. Last week Cubans observed it with memorable eruptions.

Eight bombs exploded in Havana and anti-government agitators blew up a railway bridge in Camaguey province.

Acting on a tip, police raided the Havana Y. M. C. A., nabbed several Young Christians in possession of a German submachine gun, three sawed-off shotguns, five rifles, a case of ammunition.

A series of dull explosions and a dreadful stench drove 4,000 guests of the Centre Asturiano Regional Society dance out into the night. The smell was traced to the person of Bartolome Mas, 25, when a stink bomb exploded in his pocket.

All through the provinces cane fields and sugar mills were reported ablaze.

Temporarily Havana was cut off from the provinces when telephone and telegraph wires were slashed in a dozen places. Suspecting revolt in Santiago, 800 government troops commandeered the night express, rushed thither. When communications were restored, iron government censorship left correspondents in Havana uncertain whether revolution was on or not.

Landing in Havana just in time for the Grito last week, Owen D. Young basked in Cuban sunshine while government sources busily rumored that he brought these glad tidings: that Manhattan’s Chase National bank was about to extend for another two years its $20,000,000 Public Works Loan to President Gerardo Machado’s hard-pressed treasury.