A FUGITIVE PRESIDENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 30, 1 March 1909, Page 4

A FUGITIVE PRESIDENT.

I A HAYTIAX SAVAGE, leral Xord Alexis, who recently fled Hayti on board a French warship. be described as a pocket edition esident Castro of Venezuela. 1,i1.-c onfrerc on the South American and, General AJexis, who is a black as on more than one occasion come collision with States somewhat ' and more powerful than his own. is Britain, Germany, and America. an old roan, a native of the north yti, and highly experienced in the *s of the revolution business. : deposition of General Alexis anted his retirement by only six is, for in the normal course of s his term of office would have on loth May next. For a number ars before, his accession the variTesidents found it safest to pay large salary and appoint him Com-Er-in-Chief of the army oi the . By this means the successive nments managed to keep General i quiet—more or less. Since 1002 .tynf been comparatively free from ial disorders until last January, an expedition of revolutionaries. anded by Jean Juneau, landed and ed Gonaives, 85 miles north-west rt-au-Prince. By the middle of i a veritable "reign of terror'' had established by, President Alexis, "ted persons were shot in the s, and the foreign residents, of there are very few, claimed the entioa of their respective Govern - :. British, French, and German ips hurried to Hayti, and after erable diplomatic pressure and of force, order was restored. iident Alexis proved his incapacity rilis'ed government by the criminal )'t his conduct. At his orders prot citizens were-arrested and exewithout trial; foreign residents ordered to leave the island: the ates were charged with fomenting tion. General Alexis is thus de--1 by an English writer who knows ■ell: "He. is an ignorant, brutal, •negro, with absolutely no qnalin for his position except a bullurnge, whicl has made him popnth the army. On the day he prod himself President Ins shot four al opponents in cold blood in Portace."' The ""Republic" of Ifflyii is ly different thing front the form erament which that term implies. a barbarism is rampant; "voodoo'' ictiaed by a great number of , nine-tenths of whom arc negro**, infrequently asserted that eauni—as a "voodoo" rite—is not un- . There is a temple dedicated to ivage cult in Port-au-Prhice. and tl Alexis himself openly frequented