MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 511, 29 September 1915, Page 6

MEXICO OF TO-DAY.

DESOLATION AND ANARCHY. A LAND OF UNSPEAKABLE HORROR. The condition of Mexico, because of the anarchy which, under the name of revolution, has raged there unchecked during the past few years, is revealed in all its tragedy in* an article contributed to the New York "Sun" by an American mining engineer who recently made a hazardous journey through the . country. The horrors of the European conflict overshadow the crime of Mexico, but in reading the article, some extracts from which are here published, it becomes apparent what !it means to permit the country to !"stew in its own juice," to quote President Wilson's euphemism. Hordes of rival bandits have already destroyed the property of American, English, and French firms, and have killed Englishmen and Americans, but America has done nothing other than the futile landing at Vera Cruz, but continues to abide by the Monroe Doctrine, which warns other nations to keep their hands off the American continent. Influential Americans are beginning to question whether America, through being Unable to maintain order herself, may not have to submit to a modification of the doctrine, so that some other Power may take in hand the task of preserving the rights of foreigners. Here is the tragedy, as realistically told by the mining engineer:— I have lived in Mexico for 20 years, he says, and I have seen the present revolution in its various stages; I was in Mexico City through the stirring days when Huerta took the capital, and Madero was killed. I think that I know the normal and the abnormal life of Mexico as well as any man.

I find Mexico to-day from border to border and from sea to sea a land of unspeakable horror. Crimes of every kind are being perpetrated unchecked. Bring to mind the atrocities of Belgium and Poland, and then imagine those countries overrun by the off-scourgings of gaols and slums, and you have a picture of the once fair land below the Rio Grande. The record of Carranza, Villa, arid Zapata and their crews will never be told; it tannot be compiled in full, becadse dead men tell no tales; it cannot be told in full, because it cannot be expressed in terms of decency.

Cut-throat Principles. It must not be supposed that Mexico is in the: midst of a revolution; the days of revolution have passed. Mexico is now merely having its bones picked dry and clean by bands of cut-throats. There are no policies and no principles animating Carranza, Zapata, or, Villa; they care not a whit for Mexico or the Mexicans. Each leader has a number of high-sounding doctrines, but they never; (have been and never will be used; these principles are known only to the leaders and not fully by them, being often formulated bv thp publicity bureaus for use rn the United States as occasion demands.

If you ask a soldier why he is lighting he will' answer "For Villa," or it may be Carranza or Zapata. He is fighting for an individual, and he is lighting for that individual because he finds that soldiering gains him 2.25 dol. a day without work, whereas he formerly might gain at the most 50c. a day. Soldiering is not a dangerous occupation, and it gives him a chance to ride a horse and to satisfy his lower instincts—he can rob,* murder, and destroy to his heart's content. The soldier fights for the chief who treats him best; if discipline appears he deserts to another leader; if he is captured he enlists under the banner of the captor. These soldiers are now tired of battles. The real fighting is now being done by the Yaqui Indians.

The Indians have always loved the raid and they are brave. They care -nothing for principles; most of them tlo. not. know that Don Porfiro, as [they called President Diaz, no longer rules. They are fighting because they like to fight, or for money, or for some fantastic reason which has "been given to them. Terrorising Fifteen Millions. The men under arms in Mexico today jiumber 150,000; they terrorise a country of 15,000,000 people, and have either murdered or driven beyond the borders many of the decent Mexican citizens above the grade of peon or lower middle class. The land is waste from one end to the other, and no man is so foolish as to plant crops or to lift a hand in industry. For wealth and the ownership of more than the simplest necessaries of life is a capital crime in Mexico —unless the owner is attached to a marauding band.

No man's life, no man's properly is safe. If a citizen has a hacienda the "commandante" of the district "intervenes." "Intervening" is delightfully simple; the formality begins and stops with the name. • A squad of soldiers make their way to the hacienda. The men are shot. Some of the women are carried off; the others may be killed. Then the looting begins. The soldiers shoot right and left, killing cattle, fowls, or any being into which a bullet may be sent; at the same time they shatter the house and outbuildings, and finally they set the whole place on fire.

The Process of Confiscation. There is no appeal from confiscation. Don Joaquin Cuesta, one of the best citizens of Guadalajara, happened to be a brother of Manuel Cuesta, who was a follower of Diaz, and in exile. He approached Villa to ask if Manuel's confiscated estates might be restored. Villa greeted him with an oath; Joaquin mildly protested that he was there to ask a favour,

and not to be cursed. Villa called an orderly. "Put this mail in my motor," he yelled; "take him outside of town and shoot him." The order was executed forthwith, because Villa ends many arguments in such fashion, and his bodyguards are expert in the business. Now and again Villa becomes too angry for formality and shoots on the spot. No one knows how many men have thus perished; their number is very large. Summary executions are the rule with the Villistas and Zapatistas; Carranza prefers less spectacular methods of putting away his enemies; lie is not a soldier.

The Track of Destruction. In Tuxpan, which lies between Vera: Cruz and Tampico, and is in possession of the Carranza forces* there is an oil company which employs a number of foreigners. As always, a squad of soldiers was billetted on the place ostensibly as a guard, but really to mulct the foreigners. Recently an attack came from a Villa contingent. The defenders at once rushed among the women and children in the houses instead of trying to take the battle out of the town. - The foreign population took refuge under a house to avoid the bullets. Eight of them were shot and five killed, including one Englishwoman; their casualties were greater than those of the combatants. Only one man in every hundred is ordinarily wounded in a Mexican battle, and it is extraordinary that these people could have been shot except by the deliberate intent of the Garranzistas.

Property* is destroyed even more freely and wantonly than human life; the armies leave a swath of desolation behind them, for that which is not used is destroyed, I travelled for five days with] General Mnrguia and his army. There were 9000 men, and I do not know how many women and children. The women and children constitute the commissary; there is no organised quartermaster's department; they steal everything that is loose. The horses are turned into the growing fields, and what the soldiers do not eat they destroy. Behind our march was a lane as desolate as the path of a tornado; there was not a living thing, not a blade of grass to be seen. Always Desolation.

A few weeks ago I sat with 'General Obreffori in his private car in the ertile Valley of Gelaya; through the windows l could see more than 10,000 cavalry horses grazing in the fields of new wheat, and trampling down that which they did not devour. Is there any wonder that famine had gripped the land? Once beautiful Durango is now desolate; the line buildings are in ruins,; the substantial people have tied, and there is neither wgrk food for man or beast. I "Watched'a drunken captain confistatcTSflfc of silver ore worth SSO a, ton. > , v The whole country is waste; I inspected a line little railroad which I had seen building a a§o between Durango and Chalchihuetes. It was a mass of wreckage; the tracks had been torn up, the pretty stations had been burned, and the engines and cars were overturned and rusting in the ditches. And wherever one goes the * eye meets , the same sights—always, always is desolation.

Starvation and Debauchery. Mexico city is starving; pitiable destitution among the inhabitants is side by side with prodigal debauchery among the "liberators." From 10,000 to <40,000 women stand from morning until night waiting the distribution of the corn that keeps them alive; they crowd so densely that many babes in arms have been suffocated in the crush. The corn is furnished by the International Charity Commission, but it is distributed by the Zapata agents, because it would never do to have the populace know that this largesse came from the "gringos."

The bread line stares at one through every hour of Ihe day. But the starvation starts and stops with the line; for the line contains the hardworking peon women. The military are not bothered with hard times;.they have more money than they had previously was in the world. The printing presses have been working day and night, and every officer above the rank of captain counts his bales of bills by the pound. They carry great wads of it sticking out from every pocket, and they are fond of tossing it about. A careful survey of the whole situation convinces me that a coalition between the leaders is impossible because all the present leaders are entirely selfish, and care more for a single dollar than they do for a hundreds peons. They, seek only personal aggrandisement, and this is incompatible with a union; the very suggestion of a union would alienate the greater generals.