A MYSTERY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 25, 23 September 1912, Page 6

A MYSTERY.

THE EXPLANATION

A considerable sensation was caused in British Maritime circles last year by the "arrest" in the Port of London of the small steamer Foam Queen. This little ship was armed with half a dozen 4.7 in. Elswick quick-firing guns, and had an exceptionally powerful wireless installation aboard. Senhor Gomez, the Portuguese Minister in London, declared that the vessel had been fitted out by Portuguese Royalists, but confirmation of his allegations wa3 lacking. The whole mystery has at last como to light in the pages of the London "Times" South American supplement. The Foam Queen, it appears, was one of four small armed steamers chartered by the Gondristas, one of the political parties of Paraguay. Two of the steamers, the Arizona, and the Salop, were safely taken to' Paraquay under the command of Lieutenant Arigos, an Argentino. Arigos took out with' him a shallow draught launch. This was loaded with arms and ammunition, jumped over a big boom at Barraca Mercedes, ran through a gauntlet at Asuncion, and brought safely to Gondra, at Anconcion. The Gondristas were armed, and marched rapidly against the Government troops. Jara, the leader of the Government forces, had to take his army through 250 miles of swamp land to meet the insurgents, but of the 300 men who started from Cai Puente, only 100 returned. The rest either perished of fever or were slain in guerilla warfare with the Gondristas. The insurgents used one of the quick-firing-guns brought on the Arizona, and this gave Jara a lot of trouble. Mounted on a- railway truck it dominated the country for a radius of eight or nine kilometres. Jara, to get rid of this gun, loaded up a locomotive with a ton or so of dynamite, and sent, the engine full speed down the line to collide with the truck carrying the gun. The gunners saw the danger which threatened their weapon ed shooting at the rapidly approaching locomotive. A well directed shell hit the engine fair and square, and there was a terrific explosion. When the smoke cleared away the locomotive had vanished into thin air.