TIGER OF MEXICO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17693, 2 August 1919, Page 7

TIGER OF MEXICO

MOST TROUBLED NATION. HISTORY OF INSURRECTIONS. . For several years the situation in Mexico in relation to Washington has been one of tho utmost uncertainty. At the end of April, 1913, a rebellion was raised in the north under the auspices ot Generals Carranza and Pancho Villa, leaders of the Constitutionalists. The insurrection steadily advane?d southward. In the meantime Hucrta had become involved in a quarrel with the United States, which ended in the seizure of Vera Cruz by American troops on April 27, 1914. On June 24, 1914, tlio Constitutionalists captured Zacatecas, and Huerta's position became untenable, so that on July 15, 1914 ho resigned, and on November 23, 1914 the American troops evacuated Santa Cruz J * hon , aroso between Carranza and Villa and confusion became worse contended by the appearance of a third party that of Zapata. The three armies fought each other, and by March 31, 1915, Carranza was in possession of Vera Cruz and Tampioo (where the great oil wells arc), Zapata had JVJexico City, and Villa was in charge of the northern part of Mexico. _ t December, 1915, Britain, France, Italy, Russia, and Germany recognised Carranza, but Villa was still in authority in the north '\ nC L j a ?> , ne P h °w of General Diaz, started a revolution in tho south. Notwithstanding all opposition, Carranza was selected as President in May, 1917.

AT THE OIL WELLS. The trouble in 1915 was precipitated principally owing to incidents at Tampics, when the Federals arrested the crew of a United States launch. Admiral Mayo in command of the United States squadron then sent an ultimatum, and the reply A°ii ,- considered unsatisfactory, the Atlantic fleet was ordered to Tampico and possession was taken of Vera Cruz. The murder of American subjects in Mexico led to the invasion of the north of Mexico in the early part of 1916 by. United tetates troops, under General Funston A campaign against Pancho Villa was undertaken, but though "Black Jack" Pershing eventually took command, nothing- much ™ as . L e .f c ?Jf c J> and January, 1917, the United states troops were withdrawn In the meantime the South American republics offered their services as mediators. Ihe offer was accepted, and an agreement arrived at, under which America agreed not to demand reparation. Fighting between the rival leaders soon broke out again, and from that date the disorders in Mexico have neriodically broken out, despite all efforts of Washington to iconcnliate constitutionalists and insurreotionaries.

Ihe following ' sympathetic" review of General Pan,oho Villa, bandit, and one-time iriesident of Mexico, is given by a writer who ouotes Paris papers as h'is authorities:—That Gghter in the Mexican field whose fame fills the world, "Pancho" Villa, tho "tiger," half Indian and half beast, as some* dailies term him, is. plainly in need of a sympathetic interpreter. More than one paper abroad esssys to redeem him, explaining that American dailies are prejudiced, perhaps unconsciously, against a character too romantic and too emotional to be appreciated north of the Rio Grande. Villa is a Latin soul seen through an Anglo-Saxon eye. His origin is obscure, but he has the fepamsh grandeur in prowess the gesture of the man of tho cape and sword.

lie can organise victory, create an army out of a ragged horde., and stand gloriously at bay. Hannibal himself, we aro reminded, did no more. He is capable of inspiring a veritable worship among his followers. He strikes terror into his enemies. French dailies cannot believe that a personality so endowed shares its salient traits with the beast or even the highway robber He has at any rate the greatness of the illiterate native herdman of th 0 Pampas, Paez who. fighting the foes of his oountry', rose gloriously to the post of President of the Venezuelan Republic many years ago. The cssenee of Villa's spirit is expressed by his nickname of "The Tiger." There is a .genuine tiger in this man, savs a writer in the Paris Figaro, a something feline and, odd as it must appear, e\>?n feminine. THE INDIAN STRAIN. PorGrio Diaz,had an Aztec mother, like Hucrta, and those men can bo cool, calculating. Villa is on his mother's side native Indian. Hence his hopeless illiteracy, his moments of blind rage his incapacity to act rationally instead of instinctively. He has the blood-lust of the tiger when brought to bay, and the vigour of that animal in aggression. There is a suggestion of the tiger in him as ho eats, holding a bone with two fingers and crunohing it ferociously.

He is alien to tho well-bred Spanish stock which has ruled tho land in the capital for so many years. Villa creates no army in a Gorman "pipe-clay" sense, with its disciplines and its orders, but his forces have defeated the best-armed troops sent against them, and have placed their leader—if only for a short time—in the highest post his oountry can offer—that of president of Mexico.