MEXICAN REVOLUTION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIV, Issue 81, 13 March 1924, Page 7

MEXICAN REVOLUTION.

OIL INTEREST’S OFFER,

STORY' OF £1,000,000 BAIT

An interesting story is told ia America explaining the cause of the latest revolution in Mexico. It is said that one of the great American oil interests offered President Obregon £1,000,000 in American gold in anticipation of taxes, and the money was duly deposited to the credit of the Mexican, Government.

The reason for this extraordinary, action was not entirely altruistic, says the Washington correspondent of a London paper. A flaw was discovered in the title of one of the most important concession owned by American oil interests, and, unless measures were taken to clear the title, the time might come when their right to the property would be questioned and their investment forfeited.

General de la Huerta, leader of tho revolt, hoard of the transaction, and the stake of £1,000,000, which would be the reward of a successful rovolu tion, was too great a temptation to ro sist- He decided that the time had come to strike.

President Obregon’s agents in the United States tried to buy a ship to drive the rebels out of Vera Cruz, the greatest oil shipping port, and while the American Government would not sell war vessels, as that would be in violation of the Washington treaties, it is said to have raised no objection to Obregon’s agents buying unarmed ships from private interests and arming them after they had passed into Mexican possession.

The attitude of the American. Government, if truly stated, is held to indicate that the lesson of the Alabama has been forgotten. During the American Civil War the Alabama was built in an English shipyard, and turned over to the Confederate Government as an unarmed vessel, her guns being mounted on the high seas. Nevertheless, the United States claimed and recovered heavy damages from the British Government for breach of neutrality. Some irritation is stated to exist among the agents of English munition manufacturers over the action of the American Government. In tho past that Government has let it be known that it would regard it as evidence oi friendship if British manufacturers did not sell war material to Latin American Republics, because that encouraged rebellion, and, as an act of international comity British manufacturers did not push their business in that quarter of the world. Now that the American Government itself is alleged to have, gone into the trade and obtained all the orders Mexico had to give, British manufacturers naturally feel that they have not been treated wth marked consideration.