FIERCE BATTLE IN MEXICO.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 74, 27 March 1912, Page 7

FIERCE BATTLE IN MEXICO.

' ♦ ■■ FOUR HUNDRED FEDERAL TROdPS KILLED. REBELS HOLD~A SUPERIOR POSITION. By Telegraph.— Press Association,— Copyright. MEXICO CITY, 26th March. A fierce battle is raging in the neigh' bourhood of Ciudad Juarez. Four hundred Federal troops are dead, and the bodies of 100 rebels have been found. General < Banquette, the Government leader, is seriously wounded. The result of the battle is- not known. The rebels hold a superior position on the surrounding heights, where the Federal troops are attacking them. THE OUTLOOK. The Mexican outlook (stated the Washington correspondent of The Times on the 11th of last month) has not improved in tho last few dnye. Stories of revolt are retailed from various- parts of the country, and the American Ambassador, in a despatch to the State Department, sums up the situation as serious. It is not, however with specific acts of turbulence that Washington is concerned so much as with tho v accumulation of evidence of a vague unrest of which the troubles at Juarez, Chihuahua, and in the Bonth are but the outward and visible signs. The tension seems to be due partly to military disaffection, the extent of which cannot be gauged here, partly to brigandage, and partly to disappointment that President Madero has not already carried out all the reforms which his Presidency was held to foreshadow" 1 , and to have been aggravated by sensational reports of possible American intervention. That intervention is not at present contemplated can now hardly be said. The attitude of Washington towards President Madero is the same as its attitude was towards President Diaz last year. The army is ready to go to the frontier, but will certainly not cross the frontier unless American and foreign lives and property are menaced by a comprehensive uprising. It was never expected that the Mexican Commonwealth would be reconstructed without troubles of the kind now being experienced, and, though things are recognised to be upon the razor's edge, it is still hoped that President Madero may pull through, or that, if he falls, he may fall in a way which will not demand intervention. So far, at any rate, none of the stories that Americana have been outraged have been capable of verification. The Mexican Minister in London made the following statement to a represents, tive of The Times:— "The pessimistic news as to the prevalence of political unrest in Mexico is grossly exaggerated, and in 6ome instances appears to have originated in a desire to affect Mexican securities. The army is faithful; the failure of Reyes, a general who was oncepopular, to secure a following is proof of that. Among the people, all who possess and all who work — the capitalists, bankers, and landowners on the one hand, and the industrial classes on. the other — give theii' support to the Government, and upon these eound elements of the population President Madero, whose election was the legal expression of the freewill of the nation, has repeatedly declared that he would base his administration. Certain rumours attribute the unrest to promises having been given by the President which cannot be .realised ; but the only ideal which he has put for* ward is that Mexico should have selfgovernment baeed upon a representative Bystem. Those troublesome elements among the population which come to the surface during a change of regime have misinterpreted President Madei'o'n words to suit their own anarchical* dosigns. The only leal difficulty to bo faced ie the activity of the bnnditD headed by Zapata. . . ." Sigh "not if your cold is painful, O'er its corpse a requiem «ing ; You can now bo quite cliedamful, Woods' Peppermint Cure relief will bring. Coughs and colds, all fly like magic, At its adyent any day; Though their endft may seem to tragic. ' I .W9fls'.JvUl .drive a li pfiisU mtos&fr.