A MANDATE FOR MEXICO.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16035, 28 January 1920, Page 4

A MANDATE FOR MEXICO.

The problem of Mexico is discussed by uho World’s 'Work in the following toms; Tho fundamental difficulty today, as President Wilson declared before Congress five years ago, is that “Mexico has no government.” The problem indeed goes even deeper than that for it is the judgment of most men familiar with Mexican conditions that the '.Mexican people, unassisted, can never construct a government. This'is the fact which Americans have to face, either now, or five years from now, or twenty-five years from now. The trouble with Mexico is not primarily Carranza ov Villa or Felix Diaz or any of the other numerous adventurers and bandits who occasionally gain temporary sway over ‘part of the Mexican populace—tho difficulty lies with the Mexican people themselves. Out of the 15,000,000 population at least 13,000,000 are pureblooded Indians, and it is absurd to believe that these Indians have the apility unaided to establish, a democratic government. The suggestion is then made that the League of Nations should give the United States a mandate for the wainiug of the “backward peoples” of Mexico, and points to the success of American administration in ,the Philippine Islands, which, when taken over from Spain in 1899, were as disorganised as Mexico is to-day, and they were just as lacking in what may bo called the fundamentals of civilisa-tion-universal primary education, sanitation, agriculture, communications—as is Mexico to-day. In twenty years all these agencies of progress have been introduced, with tho result that the Philippines are to-day prosperous, happy, even enlightened, and show a capacity for self-government, which points to the day when, under proper control, their independence can be given them. That is the duty which is marked out in Mexico. The League of Nations would probably be glad to make tho United States the mandatory of the Indian Republic to the south; the duty is one which, however much they might like to avoid it, it is utterly beyond their power to refuse. The ouly solution is to attempt to build up an orderly State and to give the Mexican people a, fair chance of life. That is the duty which the United States will ultimately be called upon to assume.