BRIGANDS WHO STEAL COUNTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 216, 5 September 1908, Page 4

BRIGANDS WHO STEAL COUNTRIES.

The must recent revolution—that in Paraguay—need not be taken too seriouslv. These small tSouth and Central American republics are ruled mostly by so-called presidents, who are nearly always in reality military dictators. When the people get tired of them, they rise against tliein, and, if successful,* either murder or depose them, the former for preference. A president of Hie t T nitcd States once referred to them collcctivelv as "brigands who steal countries." This was hard hitting, but not undeserved.

Of course, there are some honourable exceptions, but for the most part those of them iwho escape assassination, ami are not killed in waging civil war with their rivals, retire to l'aris, where they usually develop into ardent patrons of establishments like Maxime's and the lint Mori. J They can all'ord to, and the booty they " amass is frequently immense, (ieneral Hclzu, for instance, Bolivia's famous dictator, stole L i;),OOD,000 in the course of a few years; and (.ieneral Melgaivjo, who slew Jlel/.u with his own hanil in his palace at La l'az, and seized the dictatorship, is credited with even more colossal plniidcriugs. Probably, however, the irrepressible Uastro, of' Venezuela, has made a better thing of .the game than anyone else has ever sueceeded in doing. Exactly what he is worth, nobody knows, but he is certainly the wealthiest of living dictators. The president of Venezuela has always in a general way been the owner of 'die country, but no one has owned it quite so completely as (leneral Castro. And hj" robs foreigners just as impartially as lie does his own people, with the result that he has received more ultimatums than any other man living.