FIGHTING IN MEXICO

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 329, 16 June 1911, Page 3

FIGHTING IN MEXICO

MORE FIGHTING TO FOLLOW. SOCIALISTS IN CONTROL. San Francisco, May 3. Though it is believed that a peaco pact will soon be arranged between President Diaz, of Mexico, and' Francisco Madero, commander of the revolutionists, the country is likely to be anything but a sanatorium for nervous subjects for some years. It does not follow that because an official agreement may be signed the men who are now under arms will return quietly to their farms and workshops. Americans who have been on the ground have remarked that the rebel soldiers enjoy their role. They bask before the admiring gaze of those who visit the camps; they gladly sell souvenirs of their marches, and tell campaign stories. They fondle their rifles as a boy fondles- a new rockinghorse. For these tsys are quite novel to tham; their President would never allow any men in the Republic except his own soldiers to handle firearms. And are they to give up their own toys and their sport and their heroic pose just because Senor Diaz and -Senor Madero may have settled their differences? Of course, there are serious-minded men among the revolutionists, but an American mining man from Mexico has declared that large numbers of them would rather continue fighting for the fun than live at peace~in the best hotel in El Patso. He" believes that after the revolution is officially closed bands of raiders will continue to roam the country, jeopardising property and life. Some of the revolutionists, particularly those in Lower California, have already declared themselves independent of Madero; and Madero has been no more eager than they to claim common eause. Utopian Socialists appear to have control, if anyone has control, of this little side-show. Some of the leaders have announced that they will fight Madero just as vigorously as they are fighting Diaz, since he is merely another "capitalist." They have ignored Madero's peace negotiations, and have been storming the city of Mazatlan, on the west coast, daring the past few days, while an armistice between the forces of Madero and Diaz has been in force.

Besides, there have ben occasional reports of uprisings in Yucatan and in the southern and central States of the Mexican Republic. Whether these are related in any way to Madero's revolution and whether they will cease at his command are not known. Americans and even Mexicans are as much in the dark about them as are the people of New Zealand, for President Diaz, with the Government telegraphs under his control, and his censorship service to aid him. has kept a stopper on all news of revolutionary happenings except in the border country. However, the larger revolution, the immediate cause of which was the imprisonment of Madero at the time when he was a candidate against Diaz for the Presidency, seems near its close.

■REFUSED TO LEAVE lITS POST. , The war lias nnt boon without its ro- J manee. The foolhardy sortie of Ocnorud i Stanley Williams, with his 80 men, against 500 Federal soldiers, near Mexican, was at least. spectacular. And last wool; this escapade was rivalled by that of a young lieutenant in tlio Federal army,"who hnd command of 30 men on a train at C'ajones, in the State of Guerrero. An army of 400 rebels appeared and colled upon the officer —a mere boy —to nirrendor. lie sent back that lie had orders to stay by the train. Jte refused to leave his post oven on the plea of the rebel leader that he should come out into the open so that the lives of civilian passengers on the train might not be endangered. Scores of rebels poured down upon the little band of fighters, under the nameless boy, and, after a few minutes' fighting, the boy and 23 of his men were dead, and the remaining two of (ho party were prisoners. One civilian on the train also had been killed.

WOMAN'S .STORY OF THE WAR. So much for the heroism. The other side of the war picture is vividly painted by an American woman living in the heart or the revolutionary district of Chihuahua. In a letter written to relatives in this country, and published by the New York Tribune, she says: "The mode of fighting in this country is something frightful. The soldiers' women go out to the battlefield with the soldiers, and they go with their aprons full of stones and with knives, If an enemy is killed or wounded, the women finish him up with knives, provided he is too seriously wounded to try to defend himself, and, if he has any fight in him, they stone the poor creature to death." But the men. she says, are even more cowardly. One afternoon, following an engagement in which the insnrrectos were whipped the Federals "just butchered men. women ami children right and left."

"They would go by a house where (lie door was open, and would shoot right into the house. For instance, there was a woman leaning over a man on a. bed giving him a drink. The. soldiers shot through the door and shot the woman in the arm. and put five holes Jhrough the man, killing him. It turned out that the man was very old and sick. Then they dragged an old, deaf, dumb and blind man into the street, and, because he did not answer when spoken to, he was killed. These are but a few examples of the frightful goings on that day. Over a hundred men were put in gaol, and the soldiers wouldn't allow food or anything to be brought to them. No wonder the Federals are hated, and the people are lor the revolutionaries." The writer tells of the recapture of tire town of Santa Eulalia by the Federals. The place was put under martial law, so that every minor who went up there to work ''required a transport or identification slip to prove that he was ill 110 wise related to a rebel." A few days later this writer rode with a party to Santa Eulalia. and caught a train for the mining smelter. The train, she says, was ''made up of engine, box-car full of soldiers, and then one coach.. The soldiers are the most direputable, dirty and lazy-looking bunch. They slouch along as if they hadn't a care in the world. All that looks business-like, about them is the rifle they carry and their belt of cartridges. You know the Mexican army' is made up for the mostjiart of prisoners. The men are a hard-looking lot, too."