17 MARCH 1917, Page 21

Benighted Mexico. By Randolph Wellford Smith. (John Lane. 6s. net.)—This

American book is a passionate attack on Mr. Wilson's Mexican policy. Mr. Smith is convinced that Carranza would have collapsed last summer had not Germany come to his rescue, providing him with money on condition that he made himself unpleasant to the United States. No doubt Mr. Smith is right. He does not, however, see that Mr. Wilson was wise in declining to let himself be entangled in Mexican affairs at a time when he might be cacti to intervene in the Great War. For America to force the issue in Mexico would have been to play the German game.