TURBULENT MEXICO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 168, 15 January 1914, Page 7

TURBULENT MEXICO.

| 3tI.SK 0!' IiEXICUAL VILLA. ' " CMC.MENUV KXItAi.'STKU.'' Sail FralliVo, December 8. ■ Under lliu victorious General Francisco Villa, tin- latest liijuri- to rise to the top of tin; welter of revolution :inil rivil war that is impoverishing Mexico, the rebels arc pi-i>])itriiif«- i» march on the city of Mexico with an unny of soldiers, This liiiui Villa seems to bc< as blood-thirsty a eoni|Uen>r as ever lcil mi army, and his victories have been attended .by acts of the most atrocious savagery. ilo lias, at the same time, •proved himself to l)e a military strategist of no mean order. J.ittle is known of Jiim, but one storv told of Jiim i-, that 21) years his young and beautiful sister was kidnapped by army ollieer.s for their own wicked purposes, and that since then he iias wreaked a revenue upon society by living tin; life of a bandit, lie is' said to have gathered round himself a following of hold and reckless fellows who form the nucleus of the army with which lie has gained control of Northern Mexico, lie is acting in concert witli (Icncral f.'arranza, the leader of 11 ie Constitutionalists.

• llenoral Carrairai, in a letter to <!o----verner Hunt, of Arizona, defends the bloody reprisals of (Jcneral Villa. ''lt is true," says tleneral Carran/.a, ''that tlie established ])rinciple observed in international wars extends to prisoners 'the privilege of pardon or immunity •from bodily harm, but in civil struggles tiio most civilised nations in all ages have employed more rigorous and bloody means even than we have been compelled to adopt." The .Mexican people, Ikadds, assuming to speak for them, have "exhausted all their powers of clemency ami forgiveness." In this spirit, then, will the civil struggle now he conducted, and as the probability of Villa and Carrauza reaching .Mexico City with their army is not at all remote, some of tlii! most savage slaughters of modem times may have to be recorded. Olio advantage that the rebel leaders possess i« that they seem to be well sup. plied with money. Their soldiers are paid ami given better care than those, of the. Federal Party. This is due to tilie fact that the revenues of the Northern States are available for their uses, and practically no Federal revenue can ■no,wj be collected in that portion of the Republic,