MEXICAN AFFAIRS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13332, 22 March 1911, Page 5

MEXICAN AFFAIRS.

INTERNATIONAL COMPLICATIONS FEARED. Press Association.—Telegraph.—Copyright. MEXICO CITY, March 21. Hcrmisillo is believed to be in danger of a rebel attack. Federal troops have been dispatched. Madero, leader of the rebels, has announced that he is ready to consider peace proposals, but demands first the retirement of President Diaz. The Minister of Finance has arrived.' He denies that any peace overtures are likely to be made by the rebels, and lie uttered a warning that the continuance of the insurrection is likely to cause international complications.

ACTIVITY IN MANILA.

Artillerymen Shipped on Transports. Japanese Buying Rice and Coal. ; MANILA, March 19. The activity in military circles hero has been extraordinary during the past week or so. Army transports sailing for San Francisco have been heavily laden with troops, and at Corregidor . Island (Philippines) additional artillerymen have been taken on board, assigned to various stations. It has also been noticed that the Japanese here have been buying unusual quantities of rice and coal.

OFF TO THE BORDER. Shipment of 250,000 Rifles. Sent to San Diego. VANCOUVER, March 19. With over 500 marines, 250,000 Springfield rifles, and a quantity of stores aboard, the naval auxiliary ship Buffalo has sailed for San Diego. The gunboat Yorktown is under orders to proceed to.the same place, and is coaling. She will sail after taking in stores at San Francisco The port of San Diego is the capital of Son Diego county, California, which borders on Mexico. The town is only 15 miles from the Mexican frontier.

WAITING FOR TROOPS. San Antonio Expecting 75 Trainloads. SAN ANTONIO, March 19. Within the next 72 hours 75 troop trains are scheduled to arrive here. The 17th Infantry, under Colonel Oradale, of Washington, have already detrained.

The posts from which the incoming soldiers have been drawn include the division of Wyoming, which is farthest removed from the rendezvous. The troops from the forts in that district are expected to arrive at San Antonio on Monday.

Sari Antonio is close to the Mexican frontier. A mile north of the town is Fort Sam Houston, one of the most important military posts in the United States. MORE SHIPS PREPARING. Operations l Resemble War Preparations. ' WASHINGTON, March 19. The navy is carrying out operations on the lines of d sudden and extensive preparation for war. Three ships of the fifth division,-the Atlantic fleet, are now on their way to Guanatanamo, Cuba. The armoured cruiser Washington will be ready to start in five days. The majority of the army and navy men accept the operations as merely technical exercises. WASHINGTON’S HURRIED ORDER. SAN FIIANCISCQ, March 19. Hurried orders to commence the construction of a new collier called the’Jupiter, at a cost of £250,000, were received at the Navy Yard at Mare Isjand from Washington to-day. Mare Island, situated in the Bay of San Pablo, off the coast of California, has an extensive naval dockyard.

“FOUL AND ROTTEN BLOT.” Socialist Orator Condemns Taft. And America's Warlike Preparation. NEW YORK, March 19. Speaking at Mobile, Alabama, , Mr. Eugene Debs, the well-known socialist agitator, said that President Taft was merely the errand boy of financial interests, r Billions of American dollars, he added, were invested in Mexico, and controlled by Wall Street, and United States money owned also mines in Mexico where thousands of peons had to be employed a,nd forced to eke out a living in starvation wages. Now they were rebelling,- and Wall Street had ordered President Taft to send 20,000 soldiers to intimidate and suppress the insurgents, , Mr. Debs classed President Taft as one of the vilest despots in the history of the world, and the war manoeuvres as the foulest and most rotten blot on United States justice.

JAPANESE NEWSPAPER’S OPINIONS. United States Wants the Whole Hog. TOKIO, March 19. One of the leading newspapers here, the Hochi, says to-day that the activity of the United States in mobilising her forces on the Mexican frontier is most significant.

“The displays are more aggressive,” continues the paper, “and the hostilitymore marked than would be the case were the operations a mere series of manoeuvres. The concentration of troops and warships is a sign of the approaching realisation of Pan-Americanism. “There is no doubt that the ultimate object of the United States is the annexation of Canada, Mexico, and the southern Republics, but this is confronted, by obstacles in the shape of the ambition of the Latin nations, the possible growth of Mexico, and the powerful confederacy of the southern Republics.” Even England, in the opinion of the Hochi, does hot dare to interfere against Pan-Americanism. ‘■’.Japan is complicated in Far Eastern politics,” proceeds the article, “and America may safely profit by the Mexican

revolution, and forestall German ambition in South America. MYSTERIOUS WIRELESS. Is It The Japanese? SAN DIEGO, March 19. The conviction that matters are of far more grave importance than a mere mobilisation because of the Mexican revolution was strengthened to-day by reports of serious interruptions to, the working of the wireless with which Admiral Thomas is directing the movements of his command. It is thought that this is the work of Japanese, and although no direct official statement can be obtained, the fact remains that naval messages are being picked up by some unknown station off the coast, which has so far refused to identify itself.

This station, it is held, can only be a war vessel, the conclusion being reached as a result of the failure of the wireless operators to get replies to messages sent out to the unknown station. Since the reports of the interruptions. Admiral Thomas has absolutely forbidden the operators to hold communication with any outsiders. COTTON MILLS TO CLOSE. In United States and England. LONDON, March 19. The Manchester master cotton spinners, acting on a proposal emanating from the United States spinners, to-day decided to suspend operations from Saturday next for three months.

A great deal of the world’s cotton is exported from Mexico.

New York messages to Sydney papers state that stories of intense suffering throughout the whole of northern Mexico have reached there from El Paso. A courier, who walked to that point from the north of Chihuahua, reports that famine is, imminent, and 25,0(10 people are faced with the danger of starvation.. .. People are fearing that the siege of Chihuahua, which has already lasted eight days, will soon result in disease and death, and numbers have already received permission to leave the place' with their children. They are now roaming the country side. Speaking at Milwaukee, Congressman Berger, a Labour orator, stated that President Taft and his Government were going back on the best of the traditions of a great repubic when they mobilised an afmy in order to uphold in a neighbouring country machinery under which even the elementary rights of civil government were denied to the great majority.