Jones's Relics

Rhode Island's scholarly, libertarian Senator Theodore Francis Green last week returned to Washington with a warm appreciation of tropic hospitality. Along with New York's Republican Representative Hamilton Fish and Democratic Representative Matthew Merritt, Democrat Green was the guest last fortnight of the Dominican Republic's Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. In Ciudad Trujillo (the General's new name for the venerable city of Santo Domingo), the U. S. delegation looked upon 1) a box (which remained unopened) containing a tiny heap of bone & dust billed as the true "last parts" of Christopher Columbus, and 2) the charm of Trujillo, who wants to improve his press relations in the U. S.

Among other claimants to the remains of the Great Discoverer are Seville, Spain, and Genoa, Italy. Many historians now agree with Trujillo that Seville's claims have been severely shaken. To Genoa's claims, little attention is paid. In company with Mrs. Fish and the Fish's 13-year-old son, Hammy, and dignitaries of Church & State, the U. S. Congressmen were feted, shown about spick & span Ciudad Trujillo, finally were invited to the Cathedral to view their host's Columbian relics.

The visitors saw a 9 by 9 by 16 in. leaden casket, graven with abbreviations unmistakably referring to "Cristoval Colon, Almirante" (see cut). Inside it when last opened were once-human bone & dust, a bullet presumably fired into Columbus during some fracas before he sailed for the New World.

Official purpose of the display was to promote an international memorial to Christopher Columbus. In the Dominican Republic, people seldom speak of Trujillo by name. When they discuss their savior, they find it safer to refer to the local equivalent of "Mr. Jones" (as do Benito Mussolini's subjects). But when Senator Green & companions got home last week, it became clear that Trujillo had also done himself a good turn. Mr. Green regaled his acquaintances with accounts of the seven hospitals, the sanitation, the orderly well-being apparent in Ciudad Trujillo. A correspondent of the Washington News who accompanied the party recorded that Trujillo was a wonderful fellow, that bootblacks wiped his guests' shoes for nothing and collected later from the dictator.

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