TELEGRAMS. CONDITIONS IN MEXICO.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 126, 30 May 1911, Page 3

TELEGRAMS. CONDITIONS IN MEXICO.

A RETURNED AUCKLANDER. HOW "AGITATORS" ARE DEALT WITH. k[BT TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] AUCKLAND, This Day. Mr. D. B. Russell, a native of Auckland, who has spent ' nearly 25 years in Mexico, us at present visiting this city. In an interview, he said : "I think that inside of three months' time Mexico should be on a peaceful basis again, and the peace should easily last for 10 or 15 years. Tho people didn't want the war. They are fond of money, and money can be made there in times of peace. Diaz has left the Administration in such a position that the laws cannot be overthrown, and with a fair and sensible man as president, and an honest Ministry, the laws are excellent ones." Asked if he thought Mexico a good field for a young man with small capital, Mr. Russell said that he did not think so. In the early days Mexico offered inducements to the young man with small capital that no other country could offer, but since then big capital had come in, making it very different for the young man. It was not a country he would advise the young man to go to at the present time, but if he had sufficient capital to buy land in, say, tho ne.xt two years, when Mexico's big holdings would assuredly be cut up (part of Madero's policy), .then the young man with small capital would nave a big chance, especially with the cheap labour offering in Mexico. "I think the labour laws in Mexico are the most effective in the world," concluded Mr. Russell. "We have no strikes. The Diaz policy in a country like Mexico is the only policy with regard to agitators. According to it an agitator who incites the natives to rebellion or to ask for impossible things against capital is shot. That is the only practical wav of ridding the country of the lazy walking delegate who lives on the poor people. This looks a little hard, but it is very much better to kill one useless individual than to have 10,000 'poor ignorant labourers against each other for an end they know nothing about, and leaving their families destitute and themselves out of work."