UNHAPPY MEXICO

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 203, 22 May 1920, Page 7

UNHAPPY MEXICO

LAND OF CORRUPTION AND GEAFL i Some idea of tlie condition of chaos : in Mexico was Riven by Mr. F. J. Dunleavy, who, for the past 30 years, Ims ; been following commercial pursuits in < the United states, says the "Sydney ' Morning Herald." Mr. Dunlcavy has re- '■ cently returned from Mexico, where l.e I spent two years conducting geographical I surveys for an American company with • ■■ oil interests. ■ ] '~ Mr. Dunleavy'g work took hinf to 12VJ \ the 20 Mexican States, and into some ;■! of the wildest parts of the country. He ; has been in a train when it was blown j up by bandits, and has also suffered the j loss of his horses and mules at their hands. That, however, was only what ' was to be^ expected in a country infested \. with bandits, he said. The overthrow of the Carranza Government is regarded by Mr. Dunleavy as a calamity for the Mexicans. Carranza was a Mexican for the Mexicans, and consequently was well hated by the Americans, who wanted to exploit the country. Outlining the cause of the present trouble, Mr. Dunleavy said it was cus- • tomary for the retiring President to nominate his successor. . Carranza proposed to nominate a civil President, and this bad-caused consternation among the , member? of the military party, because it meant an end to ( the graft and corruption which thev practised. The military people in their civil capacity in the States, collected the taxes—some for tha Treasury and some for themselves. Despite) the fact that .the taxes collected - last year wore almost 50 per cent, higher than on any previous occasion, the Treasury was so short that school teachers were being discharged and the police of Mexico city were striking for their pay. Carranza had been trying to do away with the military regime, and the memIwrs of that class had now retaliated. Carranza, said Mr. Dunleavy, had brought the Mexican people io a position which had never .been bettered be-' fore. He had freed the peons from slavery and had settled them on the land. ' Slate rights were the cause of a good deal of the trouble. The States-ignored. •" the. Federal Government except when it suited them. Some of them eveji issued their own paper money. Mr. Dunleavy suggested that the revolutionaries in the present uprising had received assistance from outsiders interested' in concessions, who considered they would have greater facilities for exploitation under a military regime. He emphasised the fact that graftand corruption were rampant, and that every man in Mexico was for himself..