“WAR-TORN” MEXICO

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1929, Page 7

“WAR-TORN” MEXICO

SIDELIGHT’S OF THE REBELLION

SAX Fit AX CISCO, April 17

'1 ne so-called war in Mexico has dunned the attention of all the Ameri.a.,i news assoc-utli-ons and hnndieUs oi .liiTosp'-nucius have s<--a relied the ‘‘war curn ..roi ' ior suilaule copy such as might ne read with avidity by a puLnu ..iiAioiis i.. , <»i.,u-u-c milling news oi tin. ..ilc.il sci.ij.l, .an it lias been exceeding ,y uiiiicuii ior the serines to secure tnc .■gut ciaos ei sanguinary copy. Score, a. hens pboibgrapneis ha.e infeski. ne war regi./n and it lias also lieu.

card iur lil„u to obtain gory picture ■ar. ii as arc demanded by a sensacio icing owpv.m..e ’uiits.de tile war are..

..ne oi cm; v..siting news phutngrapliei managed to send out a series of pictures snowing j’cdcral. soldiers repul. iiig an a.Liaca hv the rcbe.s at Naet. >,nora, ami he also transmitted a de> .. riplion oi the scene at the front. H ais uispatch, .John Thomas Burn writing from the tiring line at Nats said : “Dawn broke with a rattle o ..maketry and the long-awaited batti.l .saeo was on. Four of us, Amor can news camera men, had ringsiu seats oil the Federal firing Tine.

“We stood within o() yards of tl. end of the Federal trenches be twee, two railway b.x cars, closer than an, oilier American observers. “Jlullets win/,zed about in a viciot: stieam. There was a vein of coined in this tragedy of battle. ’ Federr. Mexican soldiers were yelling anwhistling like wild men. Three Mex' can women kept running front a horn to the trenches near us, carrying fooo. Spasmodically a strident bugle call rose above the clamour. The soldiers in trenches lingered their noses at thapproaching rebels. Same threw kit <os. Another bugle call, for what we did not know, and the troops ai reaches seemed to care less.

“The rebel air raid aceontpanyinthe infantry advance attracted no ai ton.ion in the trenches. The tlug-ii Federals kept plugging away, firim over' the plain in any direction thn caught the individual’s fancy.

~ ‘.‘Then'came a rebel tank. The Fed eraF troops went into wild spasms o' yelling. All rifles and carbines pointo' toward it, sputtering steel-jacketed bullets. The tank hacked up, tlier came forward'again in attack. Agai’ the bugle call and anotlier rattle o' musketry at the tank. And a litth pup joined the fray. Tt stood up ‘or the ■ earthworks barking like mad. Every time it noticed a bullet Spattering the eartli near it it dashed oid harking shrilly, and digging and biting at the spot where the bullet, raised dust. It was busy catching them. HORSES GRAZING NEAR WAR. “A hand of wild horses were grazing near the entrenchments. They went wild when, the firing started, dashing about with tails high and finally running madly off into the plains. “With head flags Hying, tire attacking rebels approached within 200 yard of the trenches. , There .were no dead in tiie trenches, hut several rebel cavalrymen f'elj off their, horses. “The entrenched Federals laughed and yelled at us as we shot pictures. W.itli my photos I walked back tNace, Arizona, bullets whizzing by. At- the border, behind a building, wen a group of Americans, soldiers, bordei officials, residents. One buck private shouted : ‘You’d better get outta hero or you’ll' lie shooting pictures of ang els.’ They showed me a steel-jocketei bullet which pierced a wall near them All around the American town peoph stood behind walls, peeking around corners to glimpse the battle.” Another .chapter in the Odyessey ol the now famous ‘lost battalion, ol General Antonio Armenia was written by A Mexico City newspaper man win found at Monterry a wounded soldier who served in the battalion. Tin soldiers wore pressed into the relic’ service, which they so heroically had tried to avoid, but their leader and a

few of Tis staff officers vanished anti their fa.e was not known.

MARCHED 22 DAYS,

General Armenia, the wounded soldier said, was at San Marcial, Sonora, with a battalion of dOO, when the rest of the Federal garrison of Sonora declared lor the rebel cause. He icf'usetl to join the revolt and was faced with immediate necessity of getting his small body of troops out of the hostile territory. Believing that the State of Chihuahua had . remained loyal he decided to attempt the almost impossible task of crossing the semi-arid and inhospitable mountains separating the two States. For days he tramped with his men toward the east. On many days there was no 10-. d. The men toon turns m m. ■ug their few horses. Finally, on the /ergo of exhaustion, the little arm.' cached Teiiiosni-Jiic, in Chihuahua. General Armenia immediately aclvi--d Governor Caravee of Ids arrival I’lie latter, in fact one of the rebel .enders, sent assurance of his loyal!,to Mexico City and said he was send ing a train. It was only when h - command was almost surrounded lr insurgents that General Armenia learned of the deceit practised on him. lining up his troops in the picturesque plaza of Temosaehie, General Arnenta, with tears streaming down Idheeks, told his men that their ep/ naroh had been in vain. He recommended that they endeavour to escapi in small groups. Most of the men were captured am’ •ncorporated into the rebel army. They were sent south to Jiminez and Lr Tefor.ma, where some of them were ’’arced to give their lives in the very cause they had suffered so much to avoid serving.

But General Armenta was not will them. His men never saw him again and the wounded soldier believed lr escaped and might still he hiding ir the mountains.