Marines Rescued

When 39 U.S. marines and 48 Nicaraguan constables were attacked last week at the remote town of Ocotal, by 600 armed Nicaraguans, only one eyewitness came forward with a complete and factual albeit hair-raising account. This personage, Senor Arnaldo Ramirez Abaunza, chief municipal official at Ocotal, wrote:

". . . The hour is 1 a.m. . . . I hear shouts of 'death to the Americans in the streets. . . . Six hundred or maybe 1,000 strong, the forces of General Augusto Calderon Sandino surround the Americans under Major Gilbert Hatfield and attack from all sides. . . . The fighting becomes general. . . . Our constabulary fight bravely in the Municipal Park. . . . American sharpshooters keep the corners clear. ... A Browning and two Lewis guns rake the yard. . . . Anyone so imprudent as to cross meets death. . . .

"The hosts of Sandino sweep on, attempting to capture the park, to use the stone wall for protection. It is now daylight--the Americans have not retreated an inch. The constabulary maintain their positions. The American sharpshooters are piling up the dead.

"Sandino offers me and the director of police safety and protection if we surrender. I refuse. "Sandino remains at the entrance of the city directing the movements of his troops. He sends a note to the heroic Major Hatfield, intimating that as he [Hatfield] has no water, he will eventually have to surrender. Hatfield replies: " 'Received your message, and say with or without water, a marine never surrenders. We remain here until we die or are captured.'

"The Major and his gallant men are fighting like lions. The fighting continues. . . .

"It is 10 a. m. Two scouting airplanes are seen. They fly low and fire on Sandino's forces and fly away. We all know they will come back with more bombs and planes and the people become frightened. Noncombatants ask me to speak to Sandino, requesting him to retire for the sake of. humanity. This I know he will not do.

"Five airplanes are seen at 3 p.m. They approach in battle formation; then they get in line, flying low, and open fire with their machine guns. They drop bombs on Sandino's army, which now is beginning to retreat.

"On the floor I see a marine dead*--the only casualty among the Americans. I go to the constabulary. There is none dead, only four wounded.

"In the park and inside the houses are Sandino's dead. In one place I count 21 and I have not looked around."/-

Responsibility. The presence of General Sandino in the vicinity of Ocotal with a large, well-armed force was reported over a fortnight ago by the Associated Press. Yet the U. S. garrison at Ocotal continued to number only 39 marines; and observers agreed that they would almost certainly have been wiped out last week had not U. S. scouting planes chanced to witness the attack by General Sandino and summoned heavy bombers from Managua, 110 miles distant (a five-day march). Who was responsible for stationing-so puny a U. S. force in a region known to be enemy-infested ?

In command of the 3,000 marines now stationed in Nicaragua (TiME, May 23) is Brigadier General Logan Feland. His state of mind last week was indicated by a radiogram which reached his wife at Atlantic City, following the successful action at Ocotal. She read: "All seems well today. Thank God for the power of aviation that saved our men. Love.

(Signed) LOGAN

Hero. A fierce, tropical storm was raging when orders came for the five U. S. bombers to soar up from their base at Managua and succor the 39 marines besieged in Ocotal. He who led the bombers through the storm was 42-year-old Major Ross Erastus ("Rusty") Rowell, an airman only four years in the service.

Purposeful, he tore through the gale at 100 miles an hour--finally sighting and circling over Ocotal. "Click" went the small, simple mechanism of his bomb release. Far below, masses of men became suddenly red, formless and conglomerate. Within half an hour a flock of black vultures were coasting down through the hot, cruel air.

Two days later Brigadier General Feland cabled to Washington: "I recommend that the distinguished service medal be awarded Major Ross E. Rowell. ... At Ocotal he led the planes to the attack with the highest tactical skill and distinguished courage. He broke the masses of the enemy, destroyed the greater part of them and drove the remainder from the field."

"Rusty" Rowell became automatically a hero.

Right or Wrong? The Ocotal affair revived last week with greatest virulence the question whether the Administration of U. S. President Coolidge has been right or wrong in its recent dealings with Nicaragua (TIME, Jan 3 et see?.).

A Latin American comment which was not more than typically censorius appeared in the leading newspaper of Mexico City, Excelsior: "May President Coolidge sleep peacefully after the assassination of 300 Nicaraguans who committed the error of defending their country, violated by an invader!"

Excelsior went on to postulate that General Sandino was right when he alone of all the Nicaraguan commanders refused to surrender and be disarmed by U. S. marines (TIME, May 30).

"The courage of Sandino," said Excelsior, "is not understood by vile souls incapable of gentlemanly acts, who would have placed in the electric chair even Don Quixote as a punishment for his most gallant adventures. . . .

"While all this is taking place that virtuous and severe President Coolidge murmurs praises and Biblical Psalms, delivers addresses of moral sentences and pleads that justice, peace and fraternity should unite all men."

In Washington, D. C., the Administration's view was presented by U.S. Secretary of State Frank Billings Kellogg. He recalled that General Sandino was indeed the only Nicaraguan commander who refused to disarm his forces; but Mr. Kellogg drew from this refusal the conclusion not that General Sandino is a "patriot," but instead the decision that he is "an outlaw . . . whose acts have no political significance." The Secretary backed up this postulate by stating that General Sandino's men have recently sought to maintain themselves by foraging upon the. property of U. S. citizens and others in Nicaragua. Thus they would fall directly within the scope of U. S. marines sent by President Coolidge "to protect the lives and property of U. S. citizens."

"Determined to Die." General Sandino retired into hiding after his defeat, but soon sent out a message of defiance: "Whoever believes we are downcast by these heavy casualties, misjudges my army, for today we are more impatient than ever to seek out the traitors of our country, determined to die if we cannot secure liberty."

Meanwhile there arrived at Managua Rear Admiral David Foote Sellers, U. S. N., to succeed Rear Admiral Julian L. Latimer as commander of the U. S. special service squadron in Nicaragua. Immediately upon landing, Rear Admiral Sellers was informed by Brigadier General Feland that numerous detachments of U. S. marines were maneuvering with intent to surround and subdue the forces of General Sandino.

Rear Admiral Latimer, who was in Washington last week, said: "Sandino has no political significance in Nicaragua--no more than Jesse James* had in the United States."

*Private Michael A. Obleski, of Koulette, Pa.

/- Marine officers reported, after "a look, around " that 300 of General Sandino's met, were killed and 100 wounded. These surprisingly large casualties were accounted for by two or three hits by powerful U.S. bombs among the massed attackers whose bodies were instantly mangled and blown to fragments.

* Few know that Jesse E. James, a Los Angeles attorney, is the son of the late notorious Jesse James (1847-82). Lawyer James has said: "Jesse James with his brother Frank and a group of other Confederate soldiers, refused to admit defeat when the war was over, and carried on a guerrilla warfare until they were pronounced outlaws by an edict of the Government and rewards were set upon their heads. With all that has been written about father no one has ever, to my knowledge, accused him of cowardice or of breaking his word."

Although this view of the purity of Jesse James's motives has been widely accepted, his actions included the killing of a very large number of persons, chiefly sheriffs, and on one authentic occasion he and four companions attacked 60 Union soldiers and managed to kill 52. He made almost a habit of giving poor farmers money to pay off their mortgages, but usually recovered the sum from the holder of the mortgage by violent means.

Certain detectives sent to "take Jesse James dead or alive" adopted the questionable expedient of tossing a bomb into his house which killed his youngest brother and tore off the arm of his mother, this at a time when Jesse was some miles distant. Thereafter Jesse considered that society had defied him to do his worst and he did it. He was shot in the back, at last, while in the act of straightening a motto on the wall, by a man who. had been his friend but yielded to the temptation of a $10,000 reward set by the State of Missouri for Jesse's capture or extermination. A lyricist of the day wrote: Why did they kill him thus so sudden? Why pin on him Death's awful lance? Why pluck the flower just in its budding? Why didn't they give poor Jesse a chance?