NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE most striking event in foreign affairs has been the sudden mobilisation of the American Army. Some 32,000 troops are under orders to proceed to the Mexican frontier, while eight warships and 2,000 marines are being despatched to the ports of Texas and Mexico. General Wco I, the Chief of Staff of the American Army, is to go with the troops. The cause of this sudden military activity is officially declared to be nothing more than the desire of the United States Government to test their mobilisation arrange- ments and to carry out army manoeuvres on a large scale, and under war conditions, in co-operation with the navy. As, however, the troops have been supplied with ball cartridge, the explanation has not greatly impressed American public opinion, which is not unnaturally greatly agitated by the event. We have shown elsewhere bow the Monroe Doctrine requires the United States to give protection to the subjects of European Powers, and to their material interests, should the insurrectionary movement in Mexico endanger life and property on a large scale. According to the Monroe Doctrine the United States, and no other Power, must undertake this work. We thus see the Monroe Doctrine is acting as a virtual protectorate of the Republics of the American Continent north and south.
