The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-07
SOLDIER SUPREME AUTHORITY IN HE
 MEXICAN CAPITAL
Police Patrol Has Been Swept Aside and People Have Little or No
 Protection

Mexico City. June 2.-tCorrespond- ence of the Associated Press.l-For the past four days this city has been prey to anxiety aud a general sense af insecurity prevails. Reports of great battles along front extending over some i5 miles are published daily in revolutionary "extras" which everyone ] reads and no one believes.
 Just what caused the forces Of za- pata and Villa to change their minds after having shipped the government archives and the treasury funds 10 Cuernavaca, preparatory to evacuating the capital, is not known. That there has been some fighting between tie advance guards of the Carranza forces ard those of zapata and Villa at Bar | rientos and Cerrogordo Is certain, but | It Is believed here that the importance | cf the engagements have been greatly | exaggerated
 The bulk of the defending army is l l1Vlng in street cars, which are strung out in long line between the suburbs Of Mixcoac and San Angel These cars, | tack along a road leading to the city of cuernavaca. the ultimate destina ton of the defending army in the event | they are driven from this city. These cars are on the opposite side of the city to that which is being attacked.
 Militia Is Supreme
 The police force of the city has been swept aside so far as practical pro- tection is concerned and, although gendarmes are seen on post as usual, l anyone wearing what approaches a military uniform is supreme This was brought home to the British consul | general here. E. w. P. Thurston the day before yesterday when he was compelled at the point of rifles to carry two of Zapata's soldiers about the city | in his automobile and was almost forced to be an aceomplice in jail de- livery.
 The soldiers made the chauffeur l ,lrive to the pententiary, where a gen eral jail break was attempted by them. During the confusion the British le- gation was offered the men arrest ed and the car returned to the consul. l The car flew the British flag al the | time of the assault. The authorities have promised to execute the soldiers in this case
 All foreigners owning cars are In the habit of flying the flag of their nationalities on the hood of the ma chine. Despite this the seizing and | stealing of cars has become SO gen l eral that few care now to risk riding | All of the banks and nearly all of the I larger commercial establishments have remained closed since the forces of Car ranza approached the city.
 Foodstuff Shortage
 Today the shortage of foodstuffs be- came so serious that rioting was avoid l of i, fired over the heads of the mobs. In 1 one instance the soldiers fired low 1 Filling a number of women. It is esti- | fted that more than 30,000 people. rearly all women, gathered in front Of | the offices of the international relief | commissions warehouses,
 At the Red Cross first aid booths 5o9 women and children were treated for in- iuries sustained in the crush Six car loads of corn were distributed and d very long line of women were still waiting for the cereal The local authorities have been unable to do anything to date to re- leve the distress. The coming If the | American Red Cross representative is awaited with much anxiety.
 Yesterday two army officers with dozen or more of their followers indrlged in a duel. The fight occurred on one of the principal streets of the city while the thorouehfare was crowded with pedes- trians, The contenders were all mounted and the fusillade caused a panic. One of the officers and two of the horses were killed and a trooper wounded.
 The diplomatic corps has been meeting daily since the city has been surrounded by the forces of Carranza. While the sessions have been secret, it has been learned that efforts are being made to have the defeated leaders promise to avoid ndiscrmipate fighting in the streets of the capital The corps is very much exer- cised over the possibility of the danger to foreign lives and property.
 Blackmailing Frequent
 Blackmail has been indulged in by se many officers lately that the military off cers executed Col. Francisco Martinez Mollejo, Col, Julian F. Guersa and Capt. Francisco Agurre today in an effort to stop the practice. The men were executed before a great crowd in the public square near the national palace
 | Colonel Mollejo, a Spanlard by birth but naturalized American. attempted to extort $l0OO0 from Alfonso Vega. prom inent merchant. Colonel Figueroa oocu- pied a room in a local hotel owned hy a Spaniard named Gonzalo Balcontin. One night he missed 5000 from his wallet and immediately took the law into his own hands, arresting the owner of the hotel and holding him prisoner until his s20GO and 5000 more were produced. Captain Aguirre his friend. aided him. The nctel proprietor finally made his escape and ;he authorities arrested the two officers Later Agurre confessed that he had stolen the 5000 from his friend, Colonel Figueroa.
 | Several arrests were made here today of persons charged with selling soldiers of the local garrison cartridges loaded with ntroglycerne instead of ordinary gunpowder.
 These persons. said to be Carranza syin- nathizers are to be publicly execute1. The nitroglycerine cartridges are said to have caused nupber of deaths among the Zapata and Villa soldiers. whose rifles exploded when the cartridge was