UNHAPPY MEXICO

Southland Times, Issue 18839, 4 June 1920, Page 5

UNHAPPY MEXICO

LAND OF CORRUPTION AND GRAFT.

Some idea of the condition of chaos in Mexico whs given by Mr F. J. Dunleavy, who, for the past 30 years, has been following commercial pursuits in the United States, says the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Dunleavy h;ts recently returned from Mexico, where he spent two years conducting geographical surveys for an American company with oil interests.

Mr Dunleavy's work took hi in to 12 of the 20 Mexican Stales, and into some of the. wildest parts of the country. He has been in a train when it was blown up by bandits, and Ims also suffered the lots of his horses and mules at. their hands. That, however, was only what was to be expected in a country' infested with bandits, hj« said.

Tli? overthrow of the Carranza Government is regarded by Mr Dunleavy a? 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 customary for tho retiring President, to nominate his successor. Carranza proposed to nominee a rivil President, and this had caused consternation among the members of the military party, because it meant an end to the graft and corruption which they practised. The military |>eoplc in their civil capacity in the Stales collected the taxes—some for the Treasury and some for themselves. Despite the fact that the taxes collected last year were 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 living to do away with the military regime, and the members of that class hail now retaliated. Carrrmza, said Mr Dunleavy, had brought, the Mexican people to a position which had never been bettered l>efore. He had freed the peons from slavery and had settled them on the land.

Plate rights were the cause of a good deal of the trouble. The States ignored the Federal Government except when it suited them. Pome of them even 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 graft and coruption were rampant and that every man in Mexico was for himselL