Private Fight

Nicaragua's regularly elected President Juan Bautista Sacasa last week ruled only the top of the dead volcano on which stands the Presidential Palace at Managua. In complete control of the rest of Nicaragua was the National Guard, created and trained by U. S. Marines during the seven-year U. S. occupation, and its General Anastasio Somoza, who had deployed his men around the base of the volcano. No murmur of protest at these activities rose from the Nicaraguan populace, who chose to regard the affair strictly as a quarrel between Somoza and Sacasa for the right to name Nicaragua's next President.

Even so, not a few Nicaraguans were worried lest this private political fight serve as an excuse for another term of U. S. occupation. Accordingly, a Somoza spokesman last week broadcast the plea: "Let us solve our own problems. Let us shed our own blood." U. S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull replied, to pointed inquiries from Chile and Peru, that the U. S. had no intention of intervening in Nicaragua for the sake of the U. S.'s puny ($13,000,000) investments.

After six days on the volcano, President Sacasa announced: "You may say for me that I was not the man for the situation because of my horror of violence and bloodshed. They may accuse me of weakness but never of unworthiness. It would be undignified to continue as President." Then he and his brother. Supreme Court Justice Federico, descended into the capital, entrained for the coast and exile in Salvador. Gloated General Somoza: "This has been a bloodless revolution and there are no hard feelings." The General spoke broadly. Sixteen were killed.

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