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By Egt BOB FLEI8HERStaff CorrespondentGENOA, June 6 (Delayed)—Allied troops today returned a golden urn to its permanent resting, place in the city’s Municipio, while local historians battled the Encyclopedia Bfitannica on the dayrs 64-dollar question: Are the ashes in the urn Columbus’ or are they not?”1The 92nd Division, which led the • impressive military ceremony, remained aloof from the controversy. Its troops were simply pairing tribute to the great navigator by returning to the cityhistorical objects which were*- ■ —moved from danger during the war.While the citizens of Genoa packed the Piazza Della Vittoria and surrounding roofs and windows, troops of the 310th Infantry Regiment marched slowly to the strains of a funeral dirge. Behind the marching men, a coal black caisson { I draped with the flag of the an-l[ad cient Genoese Republic was drawn I into the square Dy six horses. IP*® After a four-gun battery of 1061 ^ howitzers had fired ... 11-salvo by salute, Pfc. Floycl Miller of Hobejzd Bound, Fla., carrying silver encased I Idocuments, and Pfc. H. L. Zacha- jcox roy of LeGrange, Tex., carrying the Kei symbolic urn, walked slowly up all long flight of steps in the center of I Un the square and laid the objects be-1 mi fore the assembled'' Allied dlgni-1 ]taries. I to! CHOIR OFFERING PjA floral piece, was set in place by IMaj. Gen. Edward Almond, Com-1 trcmanding General of the 92nd Divi-1 erision. After the division chaplainsaid the invocation and the ‘'Wings no over Jordan” choir sang ‘‘God Bless sui America,” the commanding gen- by eral addressed the more than 6,000 sa Allied troops and the thousands of 861 Genoese assambled in the huge thsquare.Paying tribute to the vision and|th the courage of the humble, General Almond said, The world’s tardy sti recognition of the great discoveries ba must serve as a warning to those mi modems who scorn true vision and du the perseverance of their contem-porri68«M mLater, in another colorful cere- of mony at the Municipio itself, Gen- ar eral Almond formally turned over po the document to the mayor of the in city, who, in turn, made the gen- so eral an honorary citizen of Genoa.The Encyclopedia Britannica,speaking for the negative, says: ia “After the funeral services at Val- so ladolid, the remains were trans- sa ferred to the Carthusian Monastery te of Santa Maria De Las Cuevas, ei Seville. Exhumed in 1542 and taken glt;across the sea to Hispaniola, the remains were interred at the cathedral of San Domingo. In 1795 on the cession of that island to the French, the relics were re-exhumed and transferred to the cathedral of Havana whence, after the Span-ish-American war, they were finally removed to the Seville Cathedral 11 where they remain.” tcDOCUMENTS UNCOVERED ^But if delving about the ancient tlt;archives of Genoa’s city hall netted no definite information on what nis in that urn, it did bring to light rlt; the translations of several of the documents in the silver box which are a part of the historical symbols involved in today’s ceremonies.One such document concerns an unpaid vino bill. Evidently it was a serious offense 500 years ago to be lax about such a matter.‘‘Christopher Columbus,” the document says, ‘son of Domenico, over 19 years of age, in the presence 11 of and with the authority and con-11cent of said Domenico, his father, voluntarily and according to his own true knowledge confessed and indeed publicly acknowledged that he must give and pay to Pietro Bel-lesso, son of Francesco, 13 soldi and , six denai in settlement of the resi- \ due of wines delife^red.”From the unknown humble sailor, who sometimes didn't pay his wine bills, to the man who in other documents signeo himself ‘‘The High Admiral of the Ocean, Vive-roy and Governor General of the Islands and of tlib Continent of Asia and the ndies,” is a rather long pull.But this man who, incidentally, is best known for his discovery of America in 1492, seems to have made it without much trouble.a\t]]
Newspaper Details
Mediterranean Stars and Stripes
Naples, Naples, IT
Fri, Jun 08, 1945
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Nathan O.
OH, USA 08 Jan 2022
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