MEXICAN OUTRAGE

Evening Star, Issue 19662, 15 September 1927, Page 16

MEXICAN OUTRAGE

TALE OF BRITISH VICTIMS MASSACRE ESCAPED BY BRIBERY Mr T. H. Watson, an English mm merchant, and Ins wife and daughter were among the travellers on the Mexican train which was attacked by religious rebels and tbo majority of the passengers massacred in circumstances of ghastly brutality. Bather than face an inquiry into the Government charges that they were responsible for instigating the massacre with Iho object of bringing the Callcs Government into disrepute, because ot the law which prevents foreign-born priests irom interfering in politics, members of the Hierarchy have lied from the coujitii. Mr anil Mrs Watson, by the aid of diplomacy, cajolery, :\nd bribes, escaped flic bandit’s butchery. Their homo is at Great Longslonc, Derbyshire, and their thrilling adventure occurred during ■ a holiday tour in America. When they readied Liverpool recently, they appeared none the worse for the experience, and chatted freely about it. They wore staying witlu a family named "Dock at' Guadalajura, which is about a hundred miles from Mexico City, They left this place by the evening train, and were seated comfortably"©!! joying their supper when tbe alarm'was given. Tho engine of tho train struck something and turned turtle ; the rifle firing was "at once started on the train from both sides, and the attack had begun in earnest. “Wo all realised we were in for it,” said Mr Watson, “although noun of us dreamt that wo were to bo involved in such a ghastly drama. ' Wo had been warned when wo started out on our journey to Mexico City that wo might have'adventures, as bandits were about. My wife and daughter and I were in the drawing room of the Pullman car, when we found the train crossing two bridges which were burning. Wc were assured that we had negotiated the danger point, and with the engine pulling at full speed, we were hastening to a safer territory. ENGINE DERAILED.

“ Then came a terrible crash, and the train came to a sudden standstill. It appears that the engine had crashed into an obstruction and had become derailed, and, as we afterwards learned, bad actually turned turtle. None of the passengers were hurt in what wc thought was an ordinary rail mishap, and we were just beginning to congratulate one another when shots were tired, and wo saw little pink flames, which wo knew were gunfire. “ At the same time bullets began to splinter tbo train. Glass was shattered, punctures appeared in the walls of the compartment, and the alarm was given by tho train attendants, ‘Lie down for your safety.’ Needless to say, wc did not want telling a second time. We were being attacked from both sides at once. “ This cross-firing by a, force ol bandits estimated at 800 was enough to paralyse the nerves of the strongest. Wc were all lying fiat on the floor and hoping for the best, and had to suffer Ibis agonising experience lor an hour while, the sides of the train wore being steadily pounded with load. “ The object of the firing, it appears, was to dispose of tho military guard of sixty soldiers who wore on the train, and' at the end of our terrible hour tho hoarso voice of the bandits could be heard calling in tho Mexican tongue to the soldiers to .surrender. Those men showed no courage, and at the first invitation capitulated, and (hoy mot the fate of cowards. The bandits swarmed round the, wrecked train and gleefully witnessed the summary execution of these . u retched so-< ailed soldiers. MOMENT' OE HOBBOK.

“Our moment of greatest horror in this terrible episode then came. Loudvoiced and rough-mannered, these nevertheless, picturesque-looking rebels, with their sombrero bats, tlieir rod waistbands and gaudy shirts, loose at tbe nock, came streaming through our car, gun in hand, revolver at the belt, and all carrying the supplementary arm of an evil-looking dagger, sonic of them clenching tho broad blade between their white teeth. These fearsome villians might have stopped out of a nightmare. “Wo were called to our feet and compelled to hold our hands np in complete subjection. Every gun was pointed at us, while wc were called upon to deliver our personal goods. Watches, money, and jewellery were handed over or snatched TV© had to exercise tho greatest tact and show the most abject submissiveness, or we could never have lived to tel! the tale. “My wife was terribly distressed by tho frightful experience, but my daughter was a brick, she not only faced the villians with defiance, but, when the muzzle of a gun came too close to her fare she brushed it aside with terrible recklessness, and spoke sharply to the man behind tho gun, thank heaven, in a language tbo brute did not understand, or she could never have been with ns to-day. “Our friend Mr Dork, who was accompanying ns to Mexico City, was a brick, and, being able to speak _i.be Mexican language, lie employed diplomacy, which probably saved our lives. By this time it was ten o’clock at night, and without a thing except what we stood up in, wc were driven like so many slice]) out on to tbe prairie, miles from anywhere. Our forbiddinglooking captors stood guard over us, and, not understanding our language, there was no means by which we could got any indication as tomur fate. For two hours until midnight, with a, friendly moon spreading a ghostly bistro over a tragic scene, which I can never forgot, wo stood huddled together in little groups at tho mercy of these romantically-attired desperadoes. There were dead and wounded around us. Those grim figures were a terrible warning to us to he ou our best behaviour.

DESTROYING THE EVIDENCE. “ Wo had noticed that a number of the bandits had been withdrawn, and a sudden explosion and hurst of flame beneath the train told us what they had been doing. They wore destroying all trace of their butchery, arid creating a funeral pyre for some of the victims of their ruthless slaughter. It was shortly .after this that wc heard a distant bugle call. Whether it was friendly or otherwise wc could not toll. It evidently caused vestiveness among onr guards; and when, as the bugle sounds drew nearer and the throbbing of the railway engine was heard, we heard among our company the joyful words, ‘A relief train I ’ Soit proved. It was a train filled with soldiers, which were a braver lot than those who had accompanied ns. “As the train drew near these men leaped from the coaches and immediately commenced an attack on the bandits. The latter, however, mounted their horses and dispersed halter skelter, and were soon hidden to view by the prairie bushes. Our lives were spared and our joy can well be imagined. We were put into a relief train, and three hours later we hud arrived in a nervous and parlous condition at our destination. What wo stood in was all wo possessed.”