MEXICO

Grey River Argus, 31 July 1940, Page 11

MEXICO

Presidential Issue A “swing” seems to have taken dace in the election, on Sunday, July 7, for the office of President OMexico. According to press' reports, General Juan Almazan, though Mtn sides claim victory, appears to have been successful. “General Almazan, reports the Australian Associated Press message, “showed surprising strength throughout the country ever the official candidate,® Senor Avila Camacho.” , Rumours were current that a revolution would break out before tne elections if Avila Camacho thought that his own election was at stake, or that a popular revolution would follow after elections if Almazan did not win. Reports of violence arc not surprising, for in Mexico the Opposition’s candidate has never oeen elected freely and peacefully, because the Government in power controls the polls. Almazan cannot be branded as a Nazi or a Fascist. If, as the cables suggest, he has come to power, he may have to use the strong hand at first to bring back the country to a more moderate course. It has not been difficult for Almazan to push his campaign by promising to redress the many wrongs ot tie Cardenas administration. During the six years of tne Caidenas regime the public debt, has doubled. This is due mainly to tnc drastic policy of expropriation of foreign-owned oil wells, mines, railways, and other industries. Normal tax revenue on about 30,000,000 acres of land has been wiped out. The Mexican peso has dropped from 28 to 17 American cents. • . Wage increases obtained by al lies, continuous strikes can hardly C'JPwith the high cost of living. The basic food of the Mexican population —beans and corn, which the land used to yield abundantly, with a residue for export—has <ow to be imported from abroad. The collective fai.rns established by Cardenas, have worked so badly that 100,000 tons or more of wheat-had to be imported last year, whereas there! used to be a surplus to. export. In a speech which Almazan made recently at Guadalajara he recalled the existing, intolerance in matters of instruction which exists in Mexico and which has hindered the country from developing para'lY'ly with the Argentine Republic, Chile and Uruguay.

He ciualified an ''atrocious p-i ‘- c’plc” that which gave the State and not the parents the education. of children, and said that sex-social-istic education was “monstrous/’ General Almazan concluded his speech, declaring that it was hign time to put an end to the attack’s which are made bj z the authorities sometimes publicly, sometimes hypocritically and with cunning, against the family. Women also campaigned for him, since he favours women’s suffrage.