REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES. DECLASSIFIEDS Authority Stateletter Inhz ML NARS 02:0 2498 and his associates. The President is reported to have said that we will trap this kitten before it has a chance to grow into a tiger. He was quoted as follows in LA TRIBUNA of May 31, 1932, in part. Referring to the attitude of the police against the manifestations of the Communists in the streets, have to confirm the correctness of their procedure which was in accordance with the law. There has been no intention whatsoever to illtreat anybody, but the irrevocable disposition to comply with the laws of the country.
There could be no better proof of this than the fact that those injured were the chief of police and one of the officers. Before the police started to clean the street, the chief of police tried to persuade the Communists to do so. Their answer consisted in bottles and stones thrown at him and in this way the consequences may be lamentable. am not afraid of Communist ideas, nor do believe that their number will greatly increase in a well organized society like our own. But since Communism preaches revolution and extermination by means of violence, the police is in charge of public order and must proceed accordingly with the right on their side. Not because they are proceeding against the Communists, but because they have to de fend the law. cannot place the Communists outside of the limits of the law just be cause they are Communists, and for the simple reason that they are Communists cannot place them above it either. We all know in Costa Rica that in order to hold a public manifestation in the street a permit from the competent authority is necessary. If this law is applied to all parties and all comply with it, cannot see any reason why Communism should be allowed to do otherwise. If we leave Communism to do what it thinks is best, then we would better do away with the police force altogether, and that is not the case.
All