THE TROUBLE IN MEXICO

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 268, 3 April 1911, Page 3

THE TROUBLE IN MEXICO

FEUDALISM MUST 00. MEXICAN FINANCE MINISTER'S VIEWS. In a review of the crisis in Mexico, published in Paris on February 20, Scnor Jose Yose Limantour, who was Minister of Finance in the Cabinet of President Diaz, declares that the only basis for peace was that the insurgents lay down their arms pending negotiations with the Government, which on its part should grant a reform of the evils that made the revolution possible. The only alternative that he foresaw was the probability of a long, wasting struggle, foresaid the Minister, "The Federal troops are no match for the cowboy insurgents." In the opinion of Senatoi; Limantour, the feudal system in Mexico must go, and the great estates in the north, which have been passed from family to family, should be distributed among the people. The Minister makes three suggestionsfirst, the abuses contaminating local administration as in the cities and towns! which have the greatest grievances. I should be abolished; second, some means should be found to allow the people to share more extensively in the holdings of land; in the third place, there is opposition to President Diaz on the grouna that, he has been too long in office and that new blood is needed. "But," added the Minister, ''Diaz was legally returned to . the Presidency by the people." ''l dislike to touch on the delicate question of neutrality," continued the Minister, "but I am convinced that the United States interpretation is too restricted. Unless it is enlarged it will seriously imperil the Governments chances of quelling the revolution. Mexico prevents Guatemalan revolutionists from remaining near the frontier just as France at the time of the Portuguese revolution forced the Carlists living near the Spanish frontier to remove at least 200 kilometres from the border on the ground that their nearness flopstituted a menace to a friendly Power. "Why cannot the United States adopt the same attitude, and not only arrest armed revolutionists, if found crossing; into Mexico, but also prevent revolutionary meetings and the dispatch of arms and ships ¥'