PURCHASE OF A REPUBLIC.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10753, 28 April 1911, Page 6

PURCHASE OF A REPUBLIC.

PRICE OF GUATEMALA. According to tlio New York American u -roup of immensely wealthy Montana capitalists, headed by a former Senator, Mr William A. Clark, the "copper kin«." and a former governor, Mr A. E Spriggs, are. about to make- a curious experiment in national expansion by practically purchasing the Central American Republic of Guatemala. Mr Clark and Mr Spriggs, who arc convinced that the financially harassed Kepublic possesses boundless stores of mineral wealth, have organised a company with a capital of £3,000,000, which will eventually be increased to £10.01)0,000, for the exploitation of Guatemala. From President Cabrera the company have secured a charter jjiyifi" them unlimited ,control over 30,000,000 acres of public lands—more than three-quarters of the total territory of Guatemala. The "deal" is the largest in the annals of American enterprise. In return for 10 per cent, of the net profits the company are to have the exclusive right to prospect and develop mines, build railways, exploit the water supply, construct telegraphs and telephones, and direct the public services in a country only a little smaller than England. -Only one formality remains to be arranged before the syndicate of American millionaires start their unprecedented enterprise. This is the ratification of the charter by the Guatemala Legislatures. The Legislature .is now sitting and within the next few weeks the charter will be presented for its approval. That it will sanction the "deal" the American syndicate entertains not the slightest doubt, notwithstanding the furious opposition of Gcrniau capitalists who have been developing rubber, coffee, and other industries in the Republic. .Among American financiers the charter is regarded as perhaps the greatest coup ever effected by a single group of capitalists. "It is the first time in the history of America," one of them boasts, "that a country lias been bought outright. Guatemala has been purchased just as a housewife would buy a reel of cotton." The American states that the acquisition of the Central American Republic by the Clark syndicate has the support of the Taft Administration, which is convinced that it will confer great strategic advantages on the United States. '. Guatemala lies south of Mexico, with Honduras on the east and the Pacific on the West. Its area is 48,290 square miles. Guatemala has existed as a separate State since 1847. The population numbers nearly two millions, half pure Indians and practically all the other half-castes.