MEXICAN EXCESSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15554, 11 March 1914, Page 9

MEXICAN EXCESSES.

HOW BENTON WAS KILLED.

SHOT IN THE BACK.

FEELING AGAINST REBELS,

LURED TO HIS DEATH

ATTACK ON MR. WILSON.

By Telegraph.Presa Association.—Copyright

(Received March 10, 9.40 p.m.)

Washington, March 10. Special telegrams state that Benton, while unarmed, was shot in the back by General Villa and his aide-de-camp as he was leaving the room.

The ferocious excesses of the rebels are turning the feeling in North Mexico against them.

An examination of the body of the American rancher, Clements Vergara, who was lured into Mexico and there done to death, shows that a blow from a rifle butt had crushed the skull, while gunshot wounds were found in the head and neck. A mutilated and burned hand indicated that he had been tortured before death. Wrapped in Mystery. The men, who exhumed the body, are believed to belong to the Texas Rangers. They restored the remains to the grave again. The commandant of the Rangers, however, denies that his men participated in the exhumation. Mr. Bryan (Secretary for State) has ordered an investigation regarding the alleged entry of the Texas Rangers into Mexico, pointing out that it is an act of war. The Governor of Texas denies that the Rangers participated in the affair. The matter is wrapped in mystery. Americans Murdered. Specific charges that 100 Americans have been killed, murdered, or outraged during the Mexican revolution have been laid before the Senate by Senator Falls, who urges the abandonment of the present policy of President Wilson as hopelessly ineffective. Senator Falls pleaded for intervention, and held that other countries were not likely to be so complaisant as Britain in the Benton case.

The chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee declared that those responsible for the country's foreign policy were doing everything possible to secure a solution without involving war.