Then Snag Blocks Flying Others to Guantanamo

By Peter Kihss
Special to The New York Times

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, July 5--A United States Navy helicopter brought out today three more American civilians who had been kidnapped by Cuban rebels.

But a second helicopter flight returned without passengers in an apparent new snag in the rescue operations.

Rear Admiral Robert B. Ellis, commander of the United States Navy base here, told reporters that the helicopter pilot had simply been informed there were no more passengers for him to pick up  Negotiations with the rebels are continuing.

The three men rescued during the day--United Fruit Company supervisors from a plantation at Guaro, on the northeast coast of Oriente Province, who had been kidnapped Monday--had reported that there were five other kidnap victims waiting at the crude airstrip from which they had been flown.  They had the impression that all were to be liberated during today and tomorrow.

Today's rescue effort left the rebels holding forty-two Americans and Canadians, including thirty United States sailors and Marines.  Five civilians had been freed Wednesday as a result of earlier negotiations by Park F. Wollam, the United Sates Consul at Santiago de Cuba.

Those brought out today were Jesse G. Ford, 52 years old, of Dillon, S. C.; Harley Francis Sparks, 55, of Frankfort, Ind., and Alfred Frank Smith, 54, of Guilford, N. H.

Mr. Wollam had left here by helicopter at 10 A. M. to resume negotiations with rebels led by Raul Castro, whose brother, Fidel Castro, heads the revolt started in December, 1956, against the regime of President Fulgencio Batista.

The helicopter returned here and then set out on the rescue mission, getting back at 4:29 P. M. with the fortunate trio.

But when it completed another round at 6:38 P. M., the pilot, Lieut. Comdr. John V. Gorman of Grand Pass, Mo., was alone.  Admiral Ellis explained simply that the pilot had told him Mr. Wollam gave no reason for his statement that there were no passengers.

Those rescued today said Mr. Wollam remained in the mountains.  They had been kidnapped at 11 o'clock Monday night from United Fruit Company's sugar plantation.  They had been brought last night to the rescue rendezvous point.  Mr. Sparks, who suffers from prostate trouble, said he believed those chosen for the first rescue flights were "fellows not feeling good."

Mr. Sparks also said that five other Americans were at the rendezvous.  They were men of the group kidnapped nine days ago from the Moa Bay mining project.  Although Mr. Sparks could recall the last names of only four of them, they appeared to include Roman Cecelei, believed to be from New York; Eugene Pfeider, a University of Minnesota professor; James D. Best of New Orleans, and J. K. Schilser of California.

Admiral Ellis said he was not scheduling further rescue flights until somebody sent him other instructions, which he said he would welcome.  However, he did recall earlier reports that the victims had been widely scattered so that rounding them up might take a long time.

Sources here had said the Fidel Castro had indicated that the American servicemen were being held in small groups scattered over a thirty mile sector in the Monte Ruse and Guayabal areas of Santa Catalina Mountains twenty-five miles north of this base.

Lieutenant Commander Gorman, the 'copter pilot, reported that Vice Consul Robert Wiecha, who rode into the mountains last Saturday to seek the missing servicemen, was with Mr. Wollam.

Today's first copter flights were by Lieut. Comdr. W. L. Geager of Lehighton, Pa.  He was escorted over the mountainous terrain by an Albatross amphibian piloted by Comdr. Robert S. Sparks.

The rescued men said that J. P. Stevens of Oklahoma had been kidnapped with them at Guaro.  They added that fifteen or twenty rebels carried out the kidnapping and took three vehicles as well, even though the Cuban Army had a post at the plantation.

They reported also that the rebels had tried to convince them that the United States was supplying the Cuban Army with weapons that were being used against the revolt.  The kidnapped men were marched to three other camps before the rendezvous.

But yesterday, they said, the rebels had held a Fourth of July party for them, complete with roast pig.

Guantanamo Base has only one helicopter, but tomorrow the carrier Randolph is arriving on a schedule training voyage.  It carries another helicopter.

Admiral Ellis noted again today that President Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles have said the United States would not give aid to Cuban combat forces against the rebellion and that this base was not being used to supply such forces.

Mr. Wollam is a retiring personality who looks like that mild television character, Mr. Peppers--short and bespectacled.  But he has already undergone the rigors of the mountains in a trek from last Saturday to this Wednesday that effected the release of five civilians as an initial rebel token.

As consul in Santiago for less than a year, Mr. Wollam had to extricate five United States newsmen last April from Cuban Government detention in that Oriente Province capital during earlier turmoil.

Mr. Wollam, who was 41 years old June 26, was born in Spiceland, Ind. He attended Chaffey Junior college in Ontario, Calif., got a Bachelor's degree from Occidental College, Los angeles, in 1938 and a Master's degree in history in 1940 from the University of California at Berkeley.

He has been in the State Department since 1943 except for a year in the Navy. He has served in Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Washington and Naples.

His wife, Constance, is in the base hospital for a check-up. They have four children, ranging in age from 16 to 1.