"Only people—God give me strength!—only people, Manuel."
"How about little people?"
"Children, yes. That has been explained to you."
"Little people. Not children, little people."
"If they are people, take them."
"How big they have to be?"
"It doesn't make any difference how big they are. If they are people, take them."
That is where the damage was done.
The official had given a snap judgement, and it led to disaster. It was not his fault. The instructions are not clear. Nowhere in all the verbiage does it say how big they have to be to be counted as people.