SLAVE TRADE OF MEXICO.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 167, 15 July 1911, Page 9

SLAVE TRADE OF MEXICO.

FLOURISHED UNDER PRESIDENT J diAz. ; - -. i Mr John Kenneth Turner's book on "Barbarous Mexico" (Cassell, 7/6 net) is a grave indictment bl the rule of President Diaz. It is the Government, not the people,- who are "barbarous," Mr Turner explains. Siavery is, of course, no more legal in Mexico than in the United States, but the thing exists with all its horrors, and in Yucatan one-third of the population is enslaved in the henequen (hemp) plantations. The fate of the Yaqui women in these slave districts is unspeakable: One of the first barbarities the henequen planter imposes upon the Yaqui slave-woman, freshly robbed of her lawful husband, , is to compel her to maTry a Chinaman and live with him! "We do that," explained one of the planters' to mc, "in order to make the Chinaman better satisfied, and less inclined to run away. And besides, -we know that-every new babe born on the place will some day be worth anywhere from 500 to 1000 dollars cash!" "If the Yaquis last out the first year," one great planter told mc, "they generally get along all right, and make good workers; but the trouble is at least twothirds of them die off in the first twelve months!" . -. . . Yucatan was ibad, <but Valle Nacional was worse: In Yucatan the Maya slaves die off faster than they are born, and twothirds of -the Yaqui staves perish during the first year after their importation into the country. In Valle Nacional all of the slaves, all but a very few-r-perhaps five per cent—die within a space of seven or eight months. . . The masters themselves told mc that it was true. And there are -15,000 of these Valle Nacional elaves^ —15.000 new ones every year! By the sixth or seventh month they 'begin tio die off like flies at the first winter frost, and after that they're not worth keeping. The cheapest thing to do is to let them die; there are plenty more where they canio from. ■ To the question how is it that the United States has supported President Diaz and countenanced the forced labour, as the plantation slavery is called; Mr Turner replies: There are nine hundred million dollars of American capital invested in Mexico! "Hush! hush!" the word goes about. "Why, we have nine hundred million dollars grinding out profits down there!" And the argument is irresistible—the behest is obeyed. In that nine hundred million dollars of American capital in Mexico is to be found the full explanation not only oi the American defence of the Mexican Government, 'but also of the political dependency of Mexico upon the Americas Government. Mr Turner tells us that his investigations in Mexico were made in 1908-9. Is it possible things are better now? Oni thing is clear: the policy of politica repression and chattel slavery Mr Turnei depicts in this -book—'which, should b( read fay all interested in humanitarian ism, and foreign affairs—can only end ii national ruin- And. all the time Mexic< is nominally a free and - indenenden I RejjuMia UkftJte Baited, States, ,