HAITI-SAN DOMINGO: Border Battle

It takes a long while for news to seep from the jungle. Only last week did news come from Port-au-Prince, Haiti to the world of a battle that in any country nearer a cable office would have made headlines.

French-speaking, Negro Haiti with an area of 10,204 sq. mi. has a population (2,550,000) almost twice that of Spanish-speaking, mainly Mestizo Dominican Republic, area 19,332 sq. mi. For years, overcrowded Haitians have been slipping over the border, squatting on Dominican land. Fortnight ago the border villages blazed with fire and the banging of musketry. When the smoke cleared, over 300 were dead on Dominican soil, mostly Haitian squatters, their wives and children. Nervous authorities in both countries feared reprisals.