REVOLT IN CHILE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 204, 30 July 1931, Page 6

REVOLT IN CHILE.

Political unrest which has been a feature of conditions in the Latin States of South America for more than a year past shows little signs of abating, though outbreaks of violence have not been witnessed on the same scale as led to the overthrow of the Governments of Argentina and Brazil, to mention but two. Labour troubles, due to the depressed state of* trade, have kept the people of nearly every State in an unsettled condition. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and 'Venezuela have been frequently disturbed by strikes within recent months. In a time of economic depression it is the custom to blame, whether rightly or wrongly, .the rulingauthorities. This was the reason for the outbursts in Chile at the week-end, when the forces aligned against the President came into conflict with the Government and blood was shed. The movement appears to have been widely organised, and the most serious results were apparent in the capital, Santiago. A threat to call a general strike unless the President voluntarily relinquished office was followed by the resignation and flight of the head of the Republic, General Ibanez del Campo. Thus is written another chapter in the story of revolutions in the South American continent in the past year. Notwithstanding the unrest apparent in recent months, the officers of the Chilean training- ship now at Sydney reported General Ibanez to be a very strong man who, if “his Ministers did not carry out his ideas of sound finance, at once demanded their resignation.” Their Reptiblic, they stated, was in a sound financial position. The revolution, however, is the sequel to recent incidents when members of the President’s Cabinet were replaced by appointees pledged to assist in a general scheme of econoprv,. and prominent Chileans members of the Senate, former Ministers, and officers in the army—were deported.