To Crush Castro at Least Harm to Nation, He Says - Oriente Skirmish On

Special to The New York Times
HAVANA, April 6 - President Fulgencio Batista expressed today the fullest confidence that he would destroy the rebel movement led by Fidel Castro and restore peace in Cuba. But General Batista admitted it could be a “long-term” operation.

Talking with a group of twenty-six United States photographers and newsreel men and correspondents at his country estate, Kuquine, The President radiated optimism and laughed a good deal. Only occasionally did his face become severe, when he talked of Señor Castro, who on April 1 declared “total was” to overthrow the regime.

Although Havana was quiet, a Cuban Army communique said twenty-six rebels had been killed in three encounters with Government troops near the north coast of Oriente, the easternmost province where the Castro revolution is based.

The Camp Colombia Army Headquarters said to that seventeen men were killed at Cauto Embarcadero where a group of rebels were attempting to halt traffic on the highway and to burn cane fields.

In his interview here General Batista permitted photographers to take pictures of his wife, Señora Marta Fernandez de Batista, and their four sons.

President Batista said the task of subduing the Castro movement might be a long operation because the Government did not wish to employ the full military power that it could bring to bear on the task.

In such action, many innocent lives would be lost, the President said, and he wished as far as possible to spare the non-combatant residents of the Sierra Maestra unnecessary suffering.

The Sierra Maestra is the highland stronghold in Oriente Province of Señor Castro and his young insurgents. The Cuban Army did not add to its report of yesterday that it had “isolated” a “principle group” of rebels there.

President Batista said he preferred to capture Señor Castro alive and bring him to trial “for the murders and other crimes he has committed.” However, the President said, he could not be responsible for what might happen if the Castro forces came face to face with the men of the Cuban Army.

Hopes To Take Castro Alive
“The Officers and soldiers are well aware of the many crimes which have been committed by Castro,” the President said, but he expressed the hope that the army would take Señor Castro alive.

Easter Sunday in Havana was tranquil and without incident. The churches were filled with worshipers, but the traditional religious processions were not held. Large detachments of policemen were on duty.

Señor Castro has declared he will call a general revolutionary strike at the “opportune” moment, and the government forces are alert to try to break any such move. The regimes has jailed a number of the labor delegates of the Cuban Electric Company and of the Cuban Telephone Company and the omnibus companies.

Camp Colombia in its reports on the skirmishing in the East said that at Cauto Cristo, five rebels were killed as they attempted to force stoppage of work in the small village.

Four rebels were killed on the highway between Yara and Bayamo when an army patrol surprised a group of rebels firing on traffic on the highway, the Army said.

Six Pilots of the Cuban Air Force were arrested yesterday according to reports circulating here. It is said that they refused to go to the Sierra Maestra for bombings. Some of the 7,000 recruits whom the Government enlisted for service in Oriente Province are also reported to have refused to go to the Sierra Maestra to fight Castro and have been arrested.