The Star. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1916. CONDITIONS IN MEXICO.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, 21 February 1916, Page 4

The Star.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1916. CONDITIONS IN MEXICO.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, 'Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton. Hurleyville. Patea. Waverley.

For a long while not much has been heard about Mexico, thougn until the present war began its ongoings were described or discussed almost daily in tiie cable messages. In a sense the country is well worthy of the world's notice, for it is large and fertile, and though it may not be politically important, commercially it is of much importance. It is, therefore, prima facie, one of the country's to be counted .on in connection with international trade after the war. Yet in this connection its domestic politics will play a large part, and if General Carranza continues to be its political head, there may arise a situation not unlike that which arose in South Africa under President Kruger. That stout old burgher's ideal was that the Transvaal should be a land of farms and pastoral spaces, and be kept clear of diamond and gold mines, and what he considered their corrupting accompaniments and consequences. On the other hand, British and other investors hungered for gold and diamonds, and it was this that was really at the bottom of the trouble. Apparently there are similar rocks ahead in connection with Mexico, where, it is said, a man can live by working ttsvo days and loafing five. It seems that Carranza considers this to be! on the whole, a fairly desirable state of things. His people, he says, need little except what can be grown on the top of the ground, and he does nob see why there should be any particular hurry to develop what is under the surface, such as oils and ores, in which Mexico is rich beyond the dreams of avarice, or, anyway, to an extent that stimulates those dreams. It- is in this connection that British, American and other outside investors are so extensively interested, and already have large investments in Mexico. Hence, quite apart from more or less chronic internal strife, there are certain formidable rocks ahead in Mexico, and in connection with that country. As a matter of fact, Mexico's domestic political troubles appear to have become practically things of the past, though perhaps not absolutely so. Anyway, Carranza is now in effect master in, if not exactly of, the country. Some may remember that when Senor Madero rose in revolt against President Diaz— -under whose rule latterly the people of Mexico were becoming poorer,and poorer and the supporters of Diaz richer and richer--

Carranza was the first man to rally to Madero's call. He was Madero's right hand in the north, and one of his most trusted advisers, until the revolution was won and Madero was elected president. But Madero was afterwards "murdered by men whom he believed he could trust. Huerta seized the government and set himself up as a dictator. The whole machinery went with him, excepting that cog which was Carranza. Again the flag of revolution leaped up in the north, and the long and bitter struggle began,"- I n the end Huerta was forced to'flee, and the revolution was a complete triumph, thanks chiefly to the singular military genius of an ignorant bandit—Pancho Villa. Villa and others like him, born of the peons and leading the peons, had met at Guadalupe in the early days of the /evolution and sworn an oath to recognice Carranza as first chief. Villa remembered his oath until the struggle was won. Then the enemies of the first chief got to work on his vanity, and convinced him that he was better fitted to rule his countrymen than Carranza. Villa therefore broke with Carranza, who had to begin all over again with his most popular- leader 'against him. In bringing this story up to date, a writer in Munsey's Magazine says that "Carranza was winning slowly but surely, when the Pan-American conference asked him to join in with the other factions in selecting a provisional president acceptable to all. He refused pointblank. They said that they would go on without him, and he told them they could go much further than that if they felt hke it; but that personally he, Carranza, the first chief, would stand pat and run Mexico after his own fashion. Finding that he was inexorable, the Pan-American conference finally decided that the best wav out was* to recognise him. And there he is—uncompromsing, determined, and relentless as ever. He refuses to establish a stable government and then bring in his reforms. He says that he will bring in his reforms and let the stable government come as a result. He says that on looking over the American system he is not for it." Still it may be that the spirit of compromise will bring progress and peace to Mexico, which, in that case, should then gradually become one of the most prosperous countries in the world and an important factor in its welfare.