RANDOM, NOTES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 138, 7 March 1929, Page 10

RANDOM, NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS’ LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Cosmos.)

“As a race,” asserts a scientist, “w» are only fit to receive a certain amount of sun.” Well, Wellingtonians haven’t anything to worry about this week. Mr. Arnold Bennett says a book reviewer reads 40 words a minute. But he should watch some people searching for their name “amongst those present.” “In a perfectly ordered community there would never be any .need for divorce,” said a Judge recently. A confirmed bachelor says that this exactly coincides with his ideas. We are told that an attempt is .being made to build houses to suit all pockets. Judging by the size of some we have seen, we should say they are very successful. • « » Italy’s birth rate for 1928 was below that of. the previous year, while her death rate has slightly increased. This, we are told, is not at all to the liking of the Fascist regime. Evidently the tax on bachelors is not high enough. Mr. S. A. Mair (Hunterville) writes: “Regarding your recent remarks about the Apia hurricane. As a lad I well remember the great hurricane when the Calliope steamed out to sea. It was reported at the time that it was owing to the quality of the New Zealand coal that she succeeded when other ships failed.” The Calliope’s coal has often been referred to, and it was no doubt a contributing cause to a remarkable achievement It has also been suggested that the Calliope was the most modern ship in Apia harbour at the time. Many of the other vessels were antiquated.

When President Carranza lay riddled with bullets in a bamboo hut in the wilds of Mexico some nine years ago, the scene was set for another vicious circle of bloodshed and revolution. Today, we read the climax to. this event in the news from Mexico. .No sooner was Carranza eliminated than Obregon, Huerta and Calles took oyer control, agreeing to hold the Presidency in rotation till death parted them. For this reason, and for many others, these three became known locally as the Triumvirate. They sprang from a fairly rough section of the community, Calles in particular, coming from. the roughest of frontier society. Obregon having taken up the duties of President, Calles was appointed to the next important position, Minister of. the Interior. He immediately got busy preparing the way for his own term of Presidency. Dangerous,, competitors abruptly disappeared, and he established in Yucatan the first communistic Government in the American hemisphere.

Under the guidance of Calles, and helped by the other members of the Triumvirate, , assassination, ruthless confiscation, and exile became the predominating political features. Over 300,000 terrified inhabitants of Mexico emigrated the first year. Mexican refugees were even kidnapped over the frontier under the eyes of the United States. General Blanco, for instance, was dragged from his hotel in Texas, chloroformed and driven to Rio Grande. He was then manacled, beaten and thrown into the river. In 1923, the Triumvirate became quarrelsome, particularly regarding the oilfields. The coffers were empty, and by now ■ most of the known competitors for the Presidency had been eliminated. In order to prevent Huerta controlling the oilfields, to obtain more money for the continuance of ruthless elimination, the -United States decided to embark on a policy of interference in Mexico. Unfortunately, this foreign Intervention was regarded as an indication that the United States were determined to assist the Triumvirate. Calles and Huerta thereupon proceeded to murder two or three thousand budding politicians, including General Flores, who had the brazenness to stand for the Presidency at the election in 1924. However, Calles was duly “elected,” and immediately repudiated existing pledges with the United States, and proceeded to nationalise the oilfields. Not content with this, he started a secondary revolution in Nicaragua. Led by one called Sacasa, the revolutionists even threatened the Nicaraguan capital. By now matters were getting sufficiently troublesome to attract the attention of foreign Powers. Britain sent a warship to those parts anti other countries appealed to the United States for help. By this time, Calles was widely hated; he bad been elected on a wave of murder, and now he was in power he spared no pains to see to it that his authority was not undermined for lack of a few sudden deaths. He was indeed desperate. Once again- the coffers were empty, and revolutions were springing up everywhere, quite out of control. At this juncture a bomb was thrown at Obregon, but failed to harm him. The two assailants, however, were executed in the full glare of press photographers and special writers. The photographs of the actual execution created a scandal when they were published in the United States.

To divert public opinion. Lindbergh was invited to fly to Mexico. This master-stroke of diplomacy quietened things down and saved the oilfields. However, in 1925, Obregon, as is well known, was assassinated. Calles then became the virtual leader of a political machine that was in reality nothing more than practical Communism. There were scores of "bosses” and the workers were forced to act according to directions for fear of reprisals. In all, there were something like seven classes of “bosses.” who all lined their pockets at the expense of the workers. Farms were divided and given to favourites, aud the original peasants were left with nothing but useless land. Since 1926, over 3,000,000 people have emigrated, and it is calculated that at this rate the entire country would bo depopulated by 1934. with Calles as sole survivor. Murder was everywhere. No less than 10 per . Cent, of the Senate were killed in;Parliamentary disputes. Since the assassination of Carranza, no UesS than eight would-be Presidents have been .murdered. and hundreds of" minor officials. The murder of. Obregon upset the equilibrium of the Triumvirate, ami the new competitors do not now see in Calles a jjppular favourite. It is not surprising, therefore, that a section of jMevicn is now demanding his yegjoyaL