AMERICA AND MEXICO

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2356, 12 January 1915, Page 4

AMERICA AND MEXICO

The unhappy state of Mexico is as poor a tribute to American foreign policy as the failure of the Unitsd States to carry out its obligations under The Hague Convention. The internal conditions of Mexico are now substantially what they- were two years ago, and Wave been ever since. Denied the blessing of settled government, the country is a prey to anarchy, and to the contending ambitions of native leaders, who rank in the estimation of civilised people little higher than bandits. The recent withdrawal of the American troops who had occupied Vera Cruz was followed immediately by an outbreak of violence in Mexico City, the capital, which endangered the lives _ of numerous Britons andAmericans who are resident there. The prospect of anything like settled government being established in Mexico is as remote as ever, and at any moment the conflicting aims of Oakranza, Villa, and other native leaders may lead to a renewal of the guerrilla fighting which has ravaged and devastated the country for two years past. Of these disaitrous

developments America has been practically an unmoved, or at all events, an inactive, spectator, and it is recognised even in the United States itself that President Wilson and his Government cannot escape re* sponsibility in the matter. It was reported the other day, for instance, that several members of the American Senate had bitterly attacked Pkesident Wilson's Mexican policy. Senator Lodge, in pointing out that the last state of Mexico was worse than the first, declared that anarchy would be a polite name to apply to the conditions that exist to-day. He charged the President with having been afraid, to pursue the conflict at Vera Cruz, when it might have led to some useful result, and declared that the only policy which could now be adopted was that ot military occupation, which every American would deplore.

Reviewing President Wilson's policy of "watchful waiting," it is difficult to see that it ever amounted to anything but a policy of mere drifting. Save for the inconclusive occupation of Vera Cruz, it found positive expression only in certain amiable platitudes regarding the desirability of settled conditions in Mexico, and the impossibility of recognising as President of Mexico a usurper implicated in the assassination of his predecessor. If the circumstances of Mexico and its inhabitants, native.and foreign, were not so desperately tragic there would be something infinitely ludicrous in the. contrast Detween the smooth urbanity of the American platitudes concerning Mexico and the savage tumult by which they were inspired. All such considerations fade away, however, before the Bterh fact that Mexico has been writhing for two years in murderous strife, and that its great northern_ neighbour has done nothing effective for the relief of its war-tortured population. After the assassination of President Madero in March, 1913, the position taken up by the United States Government was that Huerta, who had profited.by tho crime, and assumed supreme control, must be "eliminated." But beyond meekly requesting the usurper to "eliminate" himself, the United States Government did nothing to carry its expressed opinion into effect. Huerta scornfully declined to step down, at the bidding of America, and in the end it was hostility within Mexico itself that compelled him to resign and leave the country. The American occupation of Vera Cruz in May, 1914, does not seem to have had any definite effect in the general situation. While the occupation lasted peace and order reigned in one Mexican town, but meantime the Htjertans and the different revolutionary sections were freely importing arms, end the disastrous civil war proceeded with unabated vigour. Almost simultaneously with the occupation of Vera Cruz the American Government sought to restore harmony in Mexico Dy invoking the mediation of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. As a result, an effort was made to bring about a fair Presidential election, nut it was an affair of words only, and carried no weight either wjth' the 'Huertans or the revolutionaries who call themselves Constitutionalists. The resignation of Huerta (in July last) has been followed by no perceptible improvement. At the moment Oarranza and Villa, each at the, head of an army, are intriguing one against another, and it is more than likely that war will shortly be raging more bitterly than ever. It is hardly necessary to emphasise tho fact that this state of affairs is far from creditable to the United States, which at all times asserts its claim to be regarded as the.dominant nation in the Western Hemisphere. As tho New York Outlooh remarked the other day: "The > nation, as weil as the individual, is recreant which rests content with its own liberty and prosperity while its less fortunate neighbour suffers from oppression, or anarchy." In the light of past experience it seems almost hopeless to look to the United States for a settlement of Mexican disorders, but the Senate debate above referred-to is one of a number of hopeful indications that the policy of "watchful waiting" may shortly be abandoned for one more worthy of a great nation.