BATISTA MEN LEAVE CUBA

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28799, 21 January 1959, Page 11

BATISTA MEN LEAVE CUBA

Safe Conduct To Chile

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) HAVANA, January 20.

Twenty-two of Batista’s political leaders left Havana by air last night for Chile under safe conduct passes. About 100 persons, at the'airport hooted, jeered, whistled and shook their Osts as armed guards escorted the 22 to a plane. The group, which had taken refuge in the Chilean Embassy, included the former Senate President and former Cabinet Ministers.

Their plane was later forced back to Havana by engine trouble and a heavy protective cordon had to be thrown around the disembarking passengers to keep a hostile crowd away. The exiles were returned to the Chilean Embassy to await repairs to the aircraft. A lung specialist examined the Cuban rdbel leader Fidel Castro last night and barred all visitors. Castro’s secretary said the revolutionary leader had “a touch” of pneumonia and was running a high fever. The specialist was summoned to Castro's bedside in his luxurious hotel suite just before midnight Castro has been suffering from influenza for nearly a week but defied doctors’ orders to remain in bed. He travelled on Sunday to Pinar Del Mar in the extreme west of Cuba, but' was so ill he was forced to undergo medical treatment at the army hospital there.