A CURIOUS EXPERIMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10224, 27 April 1911, Page 4

A CURIOUS EXPERIMENT.

According to the New York American, a group of immensely wealthy Montana capitalists, headed by a former Senator, Mr William A. Clark, the "copper king," and a former governor, Mr A. E. Spriggs, are about to make a curious experiment in national expansion by practically purchasing the Central American 'Republic of Guatemala. Mr Clark and Mr Spriggs, who are convinced that the financially harassed Republic possesses boundless stores of mineral wealth, have organised a company with a capital: of £3,000,000, which will eventually be increased to £10,000,000, for the exploitation of Guatemala. From President Cabrera the company have, secured a charter giving them unlimited control over 30,000,000 acres of public lands—more than three-quar-ters of the total territory of Guatemala. The "deal" is the largest in tne annals of American enterprise. In return for ten per cent, of the net profits the. company are to have the exclusive right to prospect and; develop mines, build railways, exploit the water supply, construct telegraphs and telephones, and direct the public services in a country only : a little smaller than England. Guatemala lies south of Mexico, with Honduras on the east and the Pacific on the west.