Sabotage on Rise in Eastern Cuba

Rebel Attacks on Transport and Commerce Increases—Many Residents Flee

By R. Hart Phillips

Special to The New York Times

HAVANA, Feb. 9—Sabotage by rebel elements is increasing in the three eastern provinces of Cuba, according to reports from that area. The chief targets are transportation services and commercial establishments.

In Santiago last night, a group of youths entered a garage of the Havana-Santiago bus company and burned two busses. Four youths were reported to have held employees at bay with pistols, poured gasoline over the two big air-conditioned buses and set them on fire. Outside, eight others armed with machine guns guarded their retreat. The damage was estimated at $50,000.

At about the same time four masked youths set fire to a large amount of coffee while four others stood guard outside.

Inhabitants are leaving El Datil, Misas de Bueycit and San Yao, south of Bayamo at the edge of the Sierra Maestra, stronghold of Fidel Castro and his insurgents. The harsh treatment meted out by troops and the encounters of rebel bands and government forces in the district are making life “insupportable,” one resident of the region said. The area is the richest coffee district of Oriente Province.

A United States citizen piloting a single-engine plane is reported to have made a forced landing in Colon, Matanzas Province, Friday morning. A witness said he was immediately arrested and taken to a military post.

Considerable sugar cane has been set on fire near Colon by a small plane in the last two weeks. United States Embassy officials have said they know nothing about the reported arrest.

This afternoon a policeman was killed in Santos Suarez, a suburb of Havana, when two youths shot and wounded a member of the Bureau of investigations as he was riding on a bus. One of the youths was wounded and captured in the gun fight that followed, but the other escaped

Cuban General Strike Urged

Special to The New York Times

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 9—Opponents of the Cuban Government of President Fulgencio Batista ran large advertisements in Caracas newspapers today asking that all Cubans support a general strike on Feb. 24. It is thought that copies of the paper are to be smuggled into Cuba and distributed there.