Battle in Mexico

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 262, 27 March 1911, Page 5

Battle in Mexico

INSURGENTS DEFEAT FEDERALS. HEAVY SLAUGHTER. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 20, 10.45 p.m. Mexico City, March 25. Reports received from Presidio, Texas, assert that the insurgent forces defeated the Federal troops near Chihuahua City. The Federal loss is reported at ICO killed. A CRISIS REACHED. THE GOVERNMENT RESIGN. GRANTING OF REFORMS IMMINENT. Received 28, 10.45 p.m. Mexico City, March 25. The Government has resigned, but Dictator Diaz has deferred acceptance or rejection of the resignations. The reason for the Ministers' action is believed to be the retirement of the Cabinet to facilitate the establishment of peace, -with political reforms. The insurgents believe the granting of their demands to be imminent. SUCCESS PREDICTED. Professor H. E. Mills, of America, an authority on Mexican affairs, in an interview in Svdney lately, declared that President Diaz was a despot, who was financed by American money. Throughout his career Diaz has represented the big interests of American and European capitalists as against ihe financial interests of his own country. The rebellion is the fnnl nut break of the people against a long serii« of outrages The leader of the rebellion, General Madero, is highly educated, and a wealthy ranchowner. Professor Mills believed the revolution would succeed, but that the United States might suppress the new Government. If so, American capitalists would seek to extend the authority of the United States Government to all Mexican affairs. SOME MYSTERIOUS MOVES. Whatever excuse mav be given for the sudden massing of United States tfoops on the Mexican border, the fact remains that all these troops are armed with rifles and ball cartridges. What, asks a writer in the Sydney Herald, is the object of it? From one quarter comes the statement that the British Foreign Office pointed out to the authorities at Washington that if no measures were taken by the United States, it would be necessary for Great Britain to land bluejackets on Mexican soil to protect British interests. Another statement is that the mobilisation was ordered as a check to possible aggressive action by Germany, to which country certain Mexican interests applied 'or protection. Then, again, it may be intended as a warning to Mexico again =t ?nv measures which would make for tlu> defeat of the Monroe doctrine. Japan, it is stated, has for some time past been attempting to get a naval station on the west coast of Mexico. Herein lies a serious danger to the United States—the possibility of an attack from the sou'.h.

There are thousands of Japanese in Mexico. The largest percentage of immigrants into Mexico of re cent years has been made up of Japanese and Chinese, who are kept out of the United States by the Exclusion Act. These so-called "undesirables" settle in Mexico and prosper. About four years ago the Japanese immigration agent completed arrangements with the Government of the Mexican State of Colima, on the west coast, for the introduction of .Vrf) families of Japanese agriculturalists, who shortly afterwards settled in that State. Many had gone there before that, many more have gone since; and among them are seasoned war veterans who went through the Russo-Japanese war. It is quite conceivable that the planting of a formidable colony of Japanese in Mexico, added to by hundreds of others every year, is not viewed with favor by the United States Government.