REVOLUTION ENDED.

Mataura Ensign, 14 May 1912, Page 5

REVOLUTION ENDED.

PARAGUAY AND !TS PEOPLE. BY ELECTRIC TULEGI'.AriI. COI'YRIGIIT. PEU UNLTKO PEES.) ASSOCIATION. Received Mav 14, 10 a.m. BUKXOS AYRFS, May 13. Official reports state that the Paraguayan rebels' artillery, 1000 rifles and 600 prisoners were captured. Many of the leaders were killed and e:;-Presi-dent Jara was wounded. The revolution is regarded as ended. A revolution in Paraguay excites less world interest than does a similar event in any othe rcountry in the. Western Hemisphere. This lack of interest is not due to the frequency of such affairs, because they cannot be said to have been of frequent occurrence. It is due rather to the comparative isolation of the country and to general ignorance concerning its conditions and its possibilities. The country lies in almost the exact centre of South America, and its capital, Asuncion, is reached by a river journey of 1000 miles from Buenos Ayres and by an ocean and river journey of nearly 7000 miles from North Atlantic ports. Asuncion was founded in the year 1536, and was for more than 100 years after that the capital of all the Spanish possessions on the east coast of South America. Argentina came into existence through the expansion of the pastoral interests of the settlers of Paraguay. As the settlement and growth of Argentina and Uruguay proceeded the importance of Paraguay faded. In addition to its location two notablo happenings have served to keep tire country in an isolated condition. The revolutionary movement of May, ISIO, which resulted in the independence of Argentina, was follow* d by an attempt on the part of the Argentines to control the Paraguay district. The battle of -January 10,' 1811, in which the Paraguayans defeated the Argentines, meant also the end of Spanish control, and the country became independent. For the next 30 years Paraguay was ruled by a very remarkable; man, Jose Rodriquez Gaspar Francia. He adopted for his country a policy of complete commercial isolation, and prohibited all intercourse with ; the outside world. The influence of i I this long-continued policy remained, I with but little modification, for many ! years after Francia's death. The. other j event which retarded progress and 1 development in Paraguay was its five | years' war (1865-70) against the combined armies of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. From that War Paraguay emerged with a population of only onesixth its number at the beginning of the conflict. The present population is given as not for from 650,000, and it ! consists in very large proportion of ! peons of Indian or mixed blood, most of them illiterate, of simple ways of life, little interested in the quarrels of rulers and would-be rulers, fairly contented if their taxes are not too heavy, and desiring chiefly to be let alone.