TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE MEXICAN SITUATION.
THE detailed news in regard to the character of the war waged by the Mexican rebels, which we summarize elsewhere, cannot but be a cause of grave anxiety. It is clear that, however " bloodstained " President Huerta may be, his antagonists can give him points and beat him on that score. Ile and his Government may show the ruth- lessne4 and Cruelty of arbitrary power, but to these evils the rebels have added the horrors of brigandage. They are not content with shooting their prisoners, but make attacks, purely for predatory purposes, on defenceless Americans, Englishmen, and other foreigners, and even upon their womenfolk. It is to be feared, indeed, that in
• very large part of Mexico all foreigners, and especially all foreigners possessed of any property worth taking, are now in deadly peril. This is a state of things which cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. Some remedy must be found, for it is impossible to believe that a country so full of all the things that the world needs is to be allowed not only to remain undeveloped, but actually to return to a con- dition of sterility, or that its population of millions of men and women is to be given over to the worst type of anarchy. Unfortunately, however, it is much easier to state the Mexican difficulties than to solve them. Still, they must be stated, for it is only by understanding how the present intolerable situation has arisen that we can hope to escape the perils of the tempest and reach land at last.
Let us say as a preliminary that if external force is to be used to restore order in Mexico, it must be used by the United States, and by the United States alone. For our- selves, we have always been willing to accept the Monroe Doctrine, even in its most highly developed form, and to recognize America's right, or, since "right" is a very ambiguous word in this context, America's wisdom, in declaring that she will not tolerate European intervention in Spanish and Portuguese America. Such European intervention must mean in the end the establishment of European power on the American Continent, where it does not now exist, an event which would bring complications, dangers, and international anxieties which the American people are naturally determined to avoid. But even those who are not inclined to concede the full claims of that American policy which, though it bears the name of Monroe, was largely suggested by Canning, must admit that the Americans could not, with due regard to their own safety and development, allow any European Power to take action for restoring law and order in a border State like Mexico, since such intervention would almost certainly lead to the erection in Mexico of a European protectorate, if not of something more, at the very doors of the Union. The moment the Americans had finished their own Civil War they instinctively turned to Mexico and made it clear to Napoleon HI. that the French troops must leave America. though the work they had undertaken was not complete, and could not, indeed, have been made com- plete without theestablishmentof a protectorate or half-way house to annexation. It is not reasonable, then, to suppose that the United States would in 1914 allow action which they would not allow some fifty years ago. But the moment it is admitted that the intervention of any European Power or group of Powers to restore order or to give protection to their own nationals—which protection cannot be given effectually without restoring law and order generally—will not be allowed, it will be seen that a very grave responsibility must rest on the United States.
The President of the United States has up till now declared, no doubt with perfect sincent3r,that the American people are determined not to interfere with the internal affairs of their neighbours. Yet all the time inter- vention by America of a most serious kind is taking place. The forbidding of action by other Powers, though it may not bear the name, is in truth intervention. A still more pronounced form of interference, though America does not appear to recognize it, is to be found in President Wilson's action in virtually putting President Huerta and his immediate circle under the ban of the United States, and declaring that they are bloodstained anon who cannot be allowed to rule, or, at any rate,
whose rule will never be acknowledged by the United States. Farther, President Wilson has been understood to insist that the United States will never recognize any concessions or financial arrangements made by President Muerte, and the existing Government—an announce- ment which paralyses the arm of the de facto Govern- ment. But though the policy of the United States in fact constitutes a far-reaching system of interfer- ence, the United States has as yet unfortunately shown no willingness to carry out the tremendous task which she has in effect taken upon herself, or, to put it in another way, which the force of circumstances has im- posed upon her. She has said "Hands off, this is my job I" to the rest of the world, but has taken no steps to shoulder the burden. Unquestionably the result of this method of intervention has been very greatly to increase the evils of the Mexican situation. It has die-. heartened the de facto Government, which, however bad in itself, is at any rate not a Government of pure brigandage, and it has greatly heartened the rebels and increased their resisting power. In spite of the atrocities which they commit, they feel themselves to be under the protection of the great neighbour who has laid a ban upon those with whom they are fighting. We have reached, indeed, the extra- ordinary position that the United States is in effect, though of course not in name, outlawing one set of combatantr because they are bloodstained, and encouraging another set in spite of their being equally cruel and ferocious. Such are the practical results of doing what the great Lord Halifax called trying to build upon a foundation of paradox. Could there be a greater paradox than declaring that America would not interfere with the complete right of self-government belonging to her neighbour, and then proceeding to an act of interference so specific as that of laying a man, or rather a group of men, under apolitical interdict?
It is, of course, suite easy to see how the Americans slipped into a position so intolerable. What they would like to do in regard to Mexico and other South American Republics is what England in the past has done in regard to certain small self-governing States—viz., to guarantee their independence and prevent their being absorbed by other Powers, but to atop absolutely at this point in the path of protection. But in most of the cases in which we have done this the State thus protected by our influence has been internally thoroughly well governed—a State giving no excuse for any outside intervention. Unfortu- nately such ideal conditions do not exist, and, as far as one can see, are not likely to prevail for many generations to come, in Mexico. To protect Mexico with- out administering it is, in effect, to protect an outrage on civilization. The policy of a non-interfering protectorate which accepts no internal responsibilities is barred by the facts of human nature. In theory America had a choice of two courses before her. She might have adopted the line of saying that the Mexicans must be left severely alone to fight out their quarrels, even if it took them fifty years to do so and led to the laying waste of the whole Republic. That was a consistent policy, but it was also in reality an impracticable one. The industrial development of Mexico and the presence of such large numbers of Americans and other foreigners made it impossible. That being so, the only alternative was for the United States, however disagree- able it might be, to accept the responsibility imposed by the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine, and to undertake the task of restoring order. If she had determined to do that, but in the most limited manner possible, her best plan would probably have been to give all the support she could to the de facto Government of President Huerta on the ground that, however bloodstained it might be, it would not prove more bloodstained than any other independent national Government likely to take its place. President Wilson was not prepared to adopt a policy apparently so cynical and worldly. In- stead he did what, with all respect, we must say was the very worst thing he could have done. He intervened and pretended not to be intervening. He deprecated bloodshed and anarchy, but yet would neither stop it himself nor allow anybody else to stop it. The Mexican politicians and brigands, though in one sense they may be uncivilized men, were acute enough to see the opportunity thus offered them, and they took full advantage of it. . Things having gone so far, we feel certain that the only way left for the United States is for themselves to restore order in Mexico. It is a tremendous task, but it is one which cannot now be avoided, nor is it beyond their ability to perform. The American people have enormous strength, enormous self-confidence, and an intense dislike of doing anything under pressure from others —that is, of doing anything which seems to compromise in the slightest degree their entire independence of action. Yet even they are not strong enough to resist the pressure of the whole world, and such pressure we feel convinced will sooner or later, consciously or unconsciously, be brought to bear upon them in regard to Mexico. We believe we are right in saying that our Courts of Law, and no doubt also the Courts in most American States, enforce the principle that if a man mixes himself up with the estate of a deceased person and takes upon himself to interfere with its disposition, although he has no legal right to do so and has not been named executor or administrator, he will be compelled by the law to discharge the duty which he has in effect undertaken, though possibly quite uncon- sciously, by his "intermeddling" action. The law will regard him as an executor and saddle him with all the responsibility of that office. In some such way as this the public opinion of the world will, we feel sure, ultimately force upon America the executorship in the case of "Be the Mexican Government, deceased." That being so, it will clearly be better for the Americans to take action sooner than later. As an example of the kind of pressure of which we write, we may note the proposal made in the Times that the United States and the European Powers generally should arrange for common action in Mexico. On the face of it that sounds a reasonable proposal. We venture to think, however, that if any attempt is made to work it out in practice, it will be found that such partnership would never be tolerated by the Americans. Remember that in the present state of things neither the Mexican Govern- ment nor the rebels would be likely to yield to moral pressure, and that a joint international expeditionary force would have to be sent. But such action as that would be tantamount to the abandonment of the Monroe Doctrine, and might lead to just the very complications which that doctrine was designed to exclude from the American Con- tinent. Military action in Mexico is only possible for the United States, and for the United States acting alone. Seoner or later she will have to take action. Without meaning it, no doubt, she has already gone too far to draw back, and the consequences of her mistaken policy of non- interfering interference have been too grave and too far- reaching to allow a sudden return to a policy of laissez faire.
Whether, if America does intervene and put an end to anarchy in Mexico by the strong hand, she will ever be able to get out of Mexico again is a very difficult problem. No doubt American optimists hold that they will be able to leave Mexico as they have left Cuba. For ourselves, we doubt it. The circumstances are very different. Still, we admit that the teat of time is the only one which can finally decide the point. We should imagine that when intervention comes its course will be something of this kind. At first the United States troops will meet with an easy victory, for both sides are becoming exhausted, and there will be a large section of the population that will welcome the restoration of order, from no matter what quarter it comes. Very soon, however, upon this exhaustion will follow a new national rebellion of the kind with which Maximilian was confronted, intended to drive the hated foreigner out of the Republic. But such a national uprising will fail, though only after a bitter struggle Then will come another period of quiet, during which a demand will grow up in America to restore their independence to the Mexicans. Such restoration will be adopted in principle by theGovernment, but will only be appliedpiecemeal. To begin with, several of the States of the North, into which Americans will have poured during the militaryoccupation, will petition to be made into a separate Republic or Republics. Their petitions will be granted, and ultimately those Republics will be admitted as new States into the American Union, while the Centre and South will be made into a Republic on the Cuban model, from which the United States troops will be withdrawn, a treaty being made giving America supervision over the foreign relations of the so- called independent nation. In another generation more leaves of the artichoke will be eaten, till at last all Mexico will be absorbed into a Republic which, fifty years hence, will have an English-speaking population of two hundred millions. Probably before that, however, the small Central American Republics down to the groat Panama "ditch" will have passed under the control of the United States. We do not doubt that from the Canal to the Canadian frontier the Republic will in the end hold an un- divided sway save for the tiny enclave of British Honduras.
In spite of foolish American talk about English jealousy and so forth, talk which is so idiotic that one really cannot be expected to contradict it, the bulk of public opinion here will be heartily with the United States in the work of restoring order in Mexico, provided that that work is done well and truly and with sincerity of purpose, and that the Americans do not indulge in too great an orgy of those moral and philanthropic paradoxes in which certain sections of the people are fond of in- dulging. If they do their job well on the spot—and if it is entrusted to General Leonard Wood it will certainly be done well and wisely and in a truly liberal spirit—the English people will not be merely friendly in the diplomatic sense, but sincerely sympathetic. They will be proud of America's successful shouldering of this huge piece of the white man's burden.
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