MEXICO IN FERMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15922, 7 May 1912, Page 6

MEXICO IN FERMENT.

President Mamf.ro is gaining few successes in his attempt to restore peaceful conditions in Mexico. Ho has the landed aristocracy against him, because he has promised to give the common people access to the soil, and the Clericals are working in opposition to him for the reason that he is a Mason and a Spiritualist. These factors have given the rebek a good basis for their operations and the formation of a provisional Administration at Juarez, where Madero himself resided temporarily when he was struggling with the ex-President, is an indication that the armies arrayed against him are at least holding their ground. The first rebellion against Madero took

place only a few months after he himself had triumphed by force of arms. *t was led by*Goneral Reyes, an old and inoapable man whoso strength had spent it-self in vain fret-tings under the rule of President Diaz. Four or five years ago General Reyes might have headed a national movement against tho dictator, but he allowed himself to be "side-tracked" on an official mission to Europe and so mtesed his opportunity. Now the rebellion is in the hands of younger and more active men and there is every indication that even if they succeed in overthrowing the present Government they will carry on the struggle among themselves. Tho fact underlying tho situation is that the Mexican people are not ready to use the powers of self-government. They are ignorant and impulsive, easily swayed by reckless agitators and stirred to violence by frenzied theorists. They need a benevolent autocrat to rule them for a generation, in order that they may be forced to accept the blessings of peace and enlightenment and prepared for the effective use of the ballot-box. But unhappily President Madero is merely a high-minded politician, not a born : leader of men, and just at the moment he looks likely to become one of the j martyrs of Mexican history.