CHANGES IN MEXICO.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 46, 22 February 1913, Page 4

CHANGES IN MEXICO.

The Latin American republics have always been notorious for the rapidity with which they can raise revolutions and substitute one government for another, and Mexico appears to be doin«its best to live up to the national reputation in this respect. There seems to be no doubt now that President Madero has fallen from his high estate, but his successor is not to be a scion of the house of Diaz after all. Felix Diaz,

wbose name was apparently used by the reactionary party to rally the supporters of the old regime around them, has now withdrawn into the background, and Oeneral Huerta is the new President. Hucrta has not so far played an important part in Mexican affairs, but he obviously stands for the victorious army, and the Madero revolution will probably close, like so many of its kind, in a military despotism. This may not be a permanent arrangement, but it will proba.bly last long enough to settle the fate of Madero. That ill-starred patriot has failed as so many well-meaninn- revolutionaries have failed before him. because he has not been strong enough to hold the reactionaries in check, nor has he been able to fulfil the lavish promises that he made to the rebels who supported him. His enemies have gained

courage through his generosity, his followers have lost faith in him because he has been too honest to let. them despoil the country, aHd so he has fallen. The usual end of the defeated revob_tionai_E in -I_,__u,___eri__- 4_-.eii_.e_

exile or death and no doubt Madero is doomed to one fate or the other, I unless the Americans interfere. Now, i President Taft has just declared thatnothing but a wholesale slaughter ot American residents in Mexico would induce him to intervene. But on the. other hand, it must be remembered that the Americans have invested a very large • amount of capital in Mexico, and that ; the stability of the Mexican Government is therefore a matter of grave importance to them. The hemp and rubber plantations and the mines which have given Mexico her vast wealth have been run largely with American money; and the railways and roads, and irrigatiou works which are indispensable to the rapid development of tbe country are also for the most part American enterprises. In all. according to the best statistical authorities, at least a thousand million American dollars — -200.000,000 —have been invested in Mexico: and naturauy the Americans want to see their money come back with good interest. All these things represent very substantial arguments that might at any time induce a patriotic government at Washington to decide for direct intervention in Mexico. And considering the heavy responsibilities thrown J upon tlie Americans by their adherence ; to the Monroe Doctrine and the obvious i necessity for maintaining order in the.! Latin-American republics if no foreign ] Power is to be allowed to interfere with them, it should be clear that revolution 1 and anarchy in Mexico are very serious matters to the people of the • United [ States; and that whether Madero or i Diaz or Huerta rule's, It is highly desir- j able from the standpoint of Washington j that order and peace should be re-estab-lished in Mexico as soon as pos.-ible. I =____-=-=___: !