A BATTLE IMPENDING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1097, 8 April 1911, Page 5

A BATTLE IMPENDING.

MEXICAN ARMY SURROUNDED.

By Telegraph—Press Asßocintion-Oopyricbt Mexico City, April 6. Tlio main force of President Diaz's arm.v is reported lo ho surrounded in tiio city of Chihuahua, tlio capital of tlio State in which the revolt has had its headquarters. Chihuahua lies in the centre of a hillgirt. plain, and now that they havo the Government troops cooped up hero the insurgents expect lo deliver a decisive stroke. General Madero, the. insurgent leader, who for some timo past has been styled the provisional President, has decreed the execution of Antono ,Carrasco, a bandit discovered among the insurgent forces.

SHORT-LIVED REBEL MINISTERS. Tho city of Chihuahua (pronounced 'Chee-wah-wah') is on an upland '1G35 feet above sea level. It is a busy town of between 30,000 and 40,000 inhabitants, and is also one of the oldest settlements in North America, having been founded so long: ago as 1539. The chief object of interest is a'fino Parroquia or parish church, dating from 1711-81). Behind the principal banking house in the city is a monument marking tho spot where Miguel Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende, leaders of' the revolution of 1810, were executed in 1811. The patriots had been previously imprisoned in the Casade Moneda (Mint). Chihuahua is on the Mexican Central Railway, and lies 225 miles in from El Paso, on tho United States border. It is also a station on the Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient Railway, which will ultimately connect Kansas City with the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The distance by rail from Chihuahua to tho capital is just under a thousand miles. American newspapers to hand by yesterday's mail state that tho revolutionists are holding considerable' areas in Northern Mexico and administering over them thorough and competent military government. The Diaz Government was reported to be coping with a revolutionary provisional government backed by an army at least six thousand Strong, and financed by a system of commandeering that embraced the best part of two Slates. The provisional government is separated into tho traditional departments of war, state, and finance. Its personnel varies from day to day in consequence of the fickleness of fortune in the field. A prisoner sent in February to Mexico City under military guard was rumoured to have held- for several weeks the post of Attor-ney-General under the rebel authority now waging "civil war." An American press correspondent at tho end of February reported General Madero as saying: "Only the large cities are under absolute, control' of tho Government. Our men largely come from tho country. Thoy aro men who know how to shoot and how to adjust themselves to camp life; how to fight. Our tactics will be changed. We are strong enough lo rely more on massed movements, with a more perfect unity of command. Before, wo met the enemy with one of our men to ten of theirs; now wo will he able to fight on more equal grounds and fight our battles to definite conclusions."