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Show EX-PRESIDENT OF CUBA HELD IN If General Gomez Surrounded at Home in Santa Clara Province by 5000 Loyalists. REBEL DESERTERS ARE ARRIVING AT COAST United States Will Be Slow to Interfere; Our Representatives Repre-sentatives to Investigate Investi-gate and Report. SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Feb. 17. , When liberal forces took possession posses-sion of the sugar mill at Palma Soriano, owned by President Menocal, Meno-cal, today, they captured two brothers broth-ers of the president. The Menocal brothers will bo brought here for safe keeping. HAVANA, Feb. 17. General J. M. Gomez, formerly president of the little island republic and now a presidential pretender, is said to be surrounded tonight to-night near his boyhood home in Santa Clara by 5000 loyalists. "Cuba libre, " the battle cry of the Cuban revolution against Spanish domination, domi-nation, again has been the watchword of the government troops. Gomez, described by the government organs as "the aged egoist," is said to have no more than 600 followers, of whom not more than 150 are trained soldiers. sol-diers. It is believed here that he may find security only in the jungles of the interior. And Gomez has found that many of his men have deserted him, as at first many of the gpvernment troops deserted desert-ed to join the revolt at a time when success of the uprising seemed probable. prob-able. Deserters from the rebel ranks are arriving at the seacoast near Jucaro. They tell the old fiction of Latin America Ameri-ca that they were impressed into the rebel ranks. In order to prevent a loss of the sugar cane crop several of the larger sugar mills are already beginning begin-ning to re-employ the meu who dropped the cane niacnette to take up the rifle of the rebel soldier. It is said that the crop thus far has not been damaged to any serious extent. The government troops finished their work of driving the rebels from all parts of Camaguey province with the exception of Cama-guey Cama-guey City, the capital, late today. Camaguey City probably will be assaulted as-saulted tomorrow. The first week of the revolution ended today without a single insurgent victoiy, but with several victories for the government troops in the provinces of Pinarrio, Havana, Matauzas and Santa Clara. The insurgent hopes for success in Camaguey and Oriente today began to fade with increased activity of government troops in those provinces. pro-vinces. GOVERNMENT AT WASHINGTON IS MAKING INQUIRY "ASHIXGTOX, Feb. 17. A close watch on the situation created in Cuba by the insurrection of the liberals was continued by the state department today, to-day, but no further steps were decided on and official reports indicated no radical development either in tho plans of the rebels or those of the government. govern-ment. Tho rebels still hold Santiago and Camaguey and minor successes in small towns and in the country near by were reported. The government troops, it was said, were moving steadily toward to-ward the occupied districts and TCports from avana indicated that President Menocal 's call for volunteers was being be-ing answered by many of the better class. Both the state department and the navy are using every facility to gather information from which a close analysis of the facts may ho made.' Orders were gent today to Minister Gonzales, the twelve Americau consular officers in Cuba, and the commanders of the American Amer-ican naval vessels at Havana, Santiago &Dd Guantanamo to make a thorough investigation, not only of the military phases of the situation, but of its economic eco-nomic and political aspects. Will Not Act Hastily. Tt was declared that unless made necessary by developments, no step toward to-ward interference by the, United States would bo taken until the reports asked for had been studied. American business interests lot it be known to state department officials today to-day that they would welcome the sending send-ing of a commission to Cuba to review the election returns, but there appeared little likelihood that such a meaure 1 would be adopted at the present. Administration Ad-ministration officials have made it plain that there is no dispoitiou to interfere in-terfere with Cuban affairs unless thev are compelled to in order to guarantee 1 to the people of that country a stable government. Suspension of money order service (Continued on Pago Four.) FORMER PBESiDEfJT OF CUBA ENTRAPPED (Continued from Page One.) between the United States and all post-offices post-offices in Cuba except the city of Ha-, Ha-, vana was announced today by Postmaster Postmas-ter General Burleson at the request of , the Cuban government. "The postmaster general's order,' said an announcement, ''instructs postmasters post-masters to suspend payments of money orders issued at any office in Cuba except ex-cept Havana after February 17 and to refuse to draw orders on any office in Cuba except Havana. Havana alone will continue to issue and pay orders on or from the United States, j "Also postmasters at all money order or-der offices in the United States are di-' di-' rected to suspend payment of any monev orders drawn upon them by postmasters post-masters in the provinces of Camaguey I and Oriente after February 12. In case of doubt as to the proper action post-I post-I masters should apply for special instructions in-structions to the third assistant postmaster post-master general, division of money orders. or-ders. ' ' The effect of this order will be to prevent Cuban revolutionists from having hav-ing financial intercourse with the United Unit-ed States through the mails. |