“MEXICANISATION”

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 162, 5 April 1938, Page 10

“MEXICANISATION”

Further to his plans for the complete “Mexicanisatiqn” of his country —in other words, Mexico for the Mexicans President Cai - denas has announced that his Government will honour hei obligations of to-day and yesterday.” Apart from the questions of fair compensation arising from the. expropriations last week of foreigncapitalised oil enterprises, the obligations of “to-day and yesterday, if duly honoured, will represent very large sums. As an indication of the general condition of insolvency now facing the country the state of British investments alone is depressing. At the end of 1936 the total British capital invested was £179,645,905. This included £38,597,130 in Government bonds, on which no interest whatever was paid that year, or the year before, for that matter. Further research into the past would probably revea. a state of affairs more or less as unsatisfactory. Investments in Mexican railways—now nationalised —totalled £92,880,236. On this the return for the past two years, and possibly longer has ' been nil. Miscellaneous investments totalled £48,880,539, but of that amount only £18,871,388 paid interest, which averaged 2.7 per cent. There is no record available concerning other foreign investments in Mexico, but American capital has flowed into the country in large quantities, and European investors no doubt have been active also. Judging by the above figures at any rate, the prospects for the settlement of the obligations of “to-day and yesterday” would seem to be something like a hopeless dawn for the morrow.