Young Revolutionaries in Cuba

THE comic-opera gallantry of student revolutionaries has been seriously harassing Cuba's military rulers for some months. Last week's attempt by university students to storm the presidential palace in Havana and kidnap President Batista was brutally crushed. But other youth movements have been wilier. A few months ago a former law student, Fidel Castro, sailed from Mexico with 82 companions in a private yacht and invaded the south east tip of Cuba. Although his band was almost wiped out, Señor Castro and a few survivors went to ground in the swampy jungle of Sierra Maestra near Santiago de Cuba. From there he has been directing a maquis operation fierce enough to keep a large part of President Batista's army busy 500 miles from Havana. As well as these spectacular gestures, revolutionaries keep Cuba in a state of unpleasant tension by bomb explosions and sabotage in the towns and by arson in the sugar fields. A tight press censorship has boomeranged on the government by producing exaggerated rumours of revolt.