Anti-Anti-Castro Policy

Anti-Castro Cuban raiders nowadays buy their 2O-mm. cannons through the mail from Finland, make their dog tags on bus station souvenir coin machines. The raiders have largely deserted the Florida coast, and operate mainly from the Bahamas, escaping detection in the maze of 700 islands. Now and then one of their boats makes a dash for Cuba to drop off guns and supplies, shoot up a shore, maybe even fire at a Russian ship.

The U.S. not only withholds help from the raiders, but actively discourages them. Washington thinks that the raids do Castro no real harm, and in fact, encourage the Russians to keep their troops in Cuba. Last week, acting on information provided by the U.S., British authorities in the Bahamas seized a 35-ft. raider boat named Violynn III. The crew of 17 had been bound on a mission to land arms on the coast of Cuba; then they intended to seek out a Russian tanker and attack it with 20-mm. incendiary and explosive shells.

The raiders were held four days in a Nassau jail on charges of illegal possession of firearms. The British released them and returned their guns, but kept the ammunition. The owner of the Violynn III, Alexander Rorke Jr., later declared that the boat had been on eleven missions to Cuba since October. And on eight of them, said Rorke. the crew included U.S. college boys. Among the institutions represented at various times: Princeton, Harvard, Boston College, Miami and Indiana.

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