OCR Text |
Show FLYING COLUMNS OF DODD AND I BROWN NOW FAR BELOW PARRAL I , ll ' I American Cavalry Close to Durango Border With Temporary -I Base Established Villa, If Alive, Has Passed Into Moun- 1 tain Fastnesses of Durango to Get in Touch With I Scattered Bands Fifty-four Trucks Deliver 1 Supplies for Advance Foray El Paso I Shippers Send Trainload of Neces- M sides to Chihuahua For General I Pershing's Command. I Torreon, Mexico, April 1 2. The de facto troops under I General Ignacio Ramos are reported to have defeated Villista I bandits in an engagement at Sierra Mojada. The bandits 'I leader, I. D. La Barra, was captured and executed and his body I was exposed to public view at Sierra Mojada and Escalon. The I bandit leader, Machado, was killed in a quarrel near Namipima, I it was reported. ' I Torreon, Mexico, April 12. An aeroplane passed over I Santa Rosalia today bound in the direction of Parral, where I American troops have been reported to be operating. The I aeroplane is believed to have followed the wagon trail from . I General Pershing's Satevo base to the Mexican National railway rail-way line, and then to have followed the railway. El Paso, Texas, April 12. That the American expeditionary force has penetrated far beyond Parral and is near, if not actually at, the Chihauhau-Durango Chihauhau-Durango border line, is indicated in code dispatches received here this afternoon, af-ternoon, by private concerns with interests in-terests in the Parral district. These dispatches said that the American advance columns now had a temporary base near Parral and that toward the end of last week two companies com-panies of the motor truck train had delivered supplies at this base. This authentic information that has come from the flying columns of Colonels Dodd and Brown for several days. Villa Hiding In Mountains. It seems certain that Villa, If he still lives, has passed into the mountain moun-tain fastness of Durango and that he is in a position to get In touch with the scattered bandit forces of that district. dis-trict. There are 27 trucks in each motor company. The delivery of 54 trucks in. dicates that the advanced cavalry has sufficient supplies to enable It to make long forays south. It Is believed here, however, that the forces of Colonel Dodd or Colonel Brown have not passed the Durango line. To do so would lengthen the line of communication too dangerously. It is likely they have been in touch with their supplies at Parral. This would account for the lack of Information from the front the past week. Simultaneously with the news that supplies had been sent as far south as the neighborhood of Parral came the Information today, that local concerns con-cerns had presented a trainload of supplies to the Mexican Central railroad rail-road for shipment to Chihuahua City, there to be sold to General Persh- (np'o trrtnnc General Obregon, Carranza minister of war, notified the embassy in Washington Wash-ington today that advices from General Gener-al Luis Gutierrez In Chihuahua say ' i hat Villa has lost most of his follow-i follow-i rs, was wounded In battle of Cleni-tjullla Cleni-tjullla and has gone Into the moun-. moun-. tains. Reports that the Arrleta brothers at Durango will unite with the bandit leader were denied. The state of Oaxaca was reported quiet with commercial and Industrial conditions restored to normal. A Felix Fe-lix Diaz revolution recently was reported re-ported there. - Washington, April 12. Reports of a. battle between troopers of the Seventh cavalry and Villa bandits, south of Namlquapa, were not mentioned in the war department's early dispatches to-day to-day and there was no further mention of the reported death of Villa. Major-General Funston reported the progress of a new plan for sending supplies forward to General Persh lng's columns. A trial shipment of forage has been sent over the Mexican Mexi-can Central line, which haB a more direct route to Chihuahua than the Mexico Northwestern, which heretofore hereto-fore has carried some shipments. Nino cars of hay and oats for tho cavalry compose the shipment. Supplies Sent by Rail. "If this shipment is successful," General FunBton reported, "other large ones will follow. It is hoped that the shipment will reach General PerBhing through the American consulate con-sulate at Chihuahua." Conditions on the west coast, particularly par-ticularly In the vicinity of Mazatlan, are causing officials here considerable anxiety. A dispatch today from the supply ship Glacier, off Mazatlan, said there was a feeling of hostility growing against Carranza officials there which might precipitate trouble. Natives In tho outlying districts of Mazatlan were said to be threatening the de facto government forces, but so far no demonstration has been made. Consular officers at Mazatlan and nearby points aro advising Americans to return to the United States. have suffered a visitation from a band i of Vlllistas on his ranch near Bachi- niba. This man said that Villa was ; neither dead nor woundede but that Pablo Lopez, the bandit's notorious j lieutenant and executioner-in-chief, I , had died and that Villa had dellber- . ately used his death as the basis of the story of his own finish. The cattleman told the following ' ' story: "I was In Guerrero at the time Villa ; came there and afterwards when the I American soldierB arrived I believed ! It was safe for us to return to my ranch. : "Last Thursday a band of twenty Vlllistas rode up to the ranch house. i They took a little grain that I had and killed one of my cows and had a great feast. They had several bot- I ties of liquor that they had secured at Guerrero and Minaca and got pretty pret-ty drunk before they were through. Fooled the GrlRQoes. "They ridiculed the American soldiers sol-diers and boasted about the way Villa Jiad fooled the "grlngoes" by sending gufdesTo the Amorlcan officers with stories of different places he was I hiding in. ; "Then they talked about Lopez and said he was dying and that as soon j as he was dead the grlngoes would be i told It was Villa and then they would all go home. I "They did not say anything different j about the whereabouts of the Villa bandits but I understood from their talk that he was far to the south and ' that they were under orders to meet , him somewhere near Parral." Mexican Considered Reliable. The Mexican who told this story is well known to several Americans here who considered him reliable. Villa's rldft south has been a dis astrous one for the villages and the j small towns through which he has raided, according to numerous reports i received here. His men have looted at will and have been ruthless In their destruction of property. Several re- ' ports relate instances of women being be-ing outraged and of Mexicans who r were shot because of their supposed ' friendliness to Americans but none j of them have been corroborated. Practically every man In the El Paso has a map of Mexico on which he , picks out a new location for the fugl- i tlve dally but the most reliable in- I formation Is to the effect that he Is ' j in northern Durango, trying to arrange ar-range for a concentration of the VII- ! llstas who have been operating under ; Canuto Reyes. ! |