The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-07-19
RE:BELSNOW RULE:
HALF OF MEXICO
Official Information Shows Car.
rama Barely CIings to Con-
troll Over Rest.
HAS ONLY $4,000 TROOPS
President Is Too Weak to Keep Order
as Bandits Haraso Whole Country
Industry Snuffed Out and
Morale at Low Ebb.

WOiCIC DIT LOW EDDs
New York-The Mexican problem
was never more Troublesome. Condi.
tons in that revOlution-rackcd land
were never more chaotic than they are
today. Carranza now controls little
more than one-half of Mexican terri.
tory and his hold on that is not at all
secure. Opposed to him are six organ
lied rebel organizations, not including
the Sonora Yaquls, while everywhere
his authority is hampered and his
troops harassed by organized BAN
ditry.
Bearing upon actual conditions in
Mexico, the New York Times has come
into possession of certain information,
now in the official possession Of the
! United States government Vertical
| ton of these statements which follow
| is to be found in tho archives of the
government in Washington.
Carranza has officially claimed that
he is supported by q regular army Of
10000 well disciplined and well
equipped troops. This statement is
not borne out by the facts in the case,
and the truth of the matter is that his
armed forces number not more than
$4,000 officers and enlisted men, who
are poorly equipped, whose morale is
at low ebb, yet upon whose loyalty de-
ponds Carranzas sway over a people
who number more than 115,00o,000.
Today the Coahula "chieftain" is ex-
ercising authority in those parts Of
Mexico not under rebel or bandit
domination as a dictator and through
the PRONUNCIATION of executive DEGREES.
OF the great American border-line Car
rama is in control of not much more
than one-third, while the whole of
southern Mexico is severed from "fed-
eral control" by a stretch of rebel-cOn-
trolled territory that on the Atlantic
extends from the rich oil lands of Tam
Pico almost to the City of Vera Cruz,
and on the Pacific by the entire coast
line of the great state of Oaxaca. |
Lever California has become to all in |
tents and purposes Independent of the |
government that sits in Mexico City.
Three General Divisions.
The contending forces in Mexico
may be referred to under three gem
cral heads. They are:
First-The federal or Carranzista
forces.
Second-The rebel forces led by
Felipe Angeles, Francisco Villa. GULL |
ermo MciXuerio, a full-blooded Zapotec
Indian, and by many well-informed OBJ
servers considered the ablest and most
leader in Mexico; Felix
Diaz, Manuel Pelaez, who dominates
the Tampco and adjacent oil fields;
the Zapatistas, still, despite Carranza
affirmation, a power in that part Of
Mexico of which the state of Morelos
is the center; General Cantu, governor
of the state of Lower California, and
the organized Yaqui Indian forces of
the western part of the border state of
Sonora.
Thrd--The bandits who, in small
are operating everywhere in
Mexico.
AS to the first or federal forces sup
porting CarranZa, it Is, as already
pointed OUT the official claim of the
present Mexican, or Carranza govern
ment, that this force numbers 10000
men. 1t is conscript army to q
great extent and it is small and ineffi- I
oient for two reasons, the first being /
Jarranza's inability to enforce con- |
and the second the fact that {
10 is unable properly to equip, train,
n maintain necessary discipline. {
Owing to these two conditions, over
which Carranza appears to have no I
control, the federal army of Mexico is +
oday at its maximum strength 1t is
IN army poorly organized and poorly
quipped. OF this army a large pro- t
,ortion is held in or near Mexico City, \
caving the remainder, numbering less
han a full division, according to the c
american organization, to guard and t
supremacy In the states Of q
>uevo Leon, eastern Coahuila, south n
IN Durango Hildago, San Luis Potosi, v
najuato, Queretaro, Michoacan, t
alisco, Topic, Zacatecas, Guerrero, p
'olima, Chiapas Campeachy, Yucatan, t
Quintana Roo, and the east T.
IN or Atlantic edge Of the state Of II
era Cruz, which territory on paper re- d
lains under federal control. s
The big transcontinental stretch Of a
nbel-controlled territory, which aver a
ges more than 100 miles in width, and o
hitch forms an unbroken barrier from r.
cean to ocean, completely separates II
lie federal-cOntrOlled states of the n
Campeachy, Yucatan, r.
part of Vera Cruz and Quin O
ina Roo-from the states or parts of II
ates over which Carranza still holds y
way in the north.
Villa Forces Strongest. Ia
OF the organized opposition groups =,
hich are seeking to overthrow Car -
MA, the most powerful is that which !,
operating in Chihuahua and neigh !,
BRING states under Angeles and Villa. -;
he Villistas, as this force is popu- n
rly known, is not the unorganized, :,
porly equipped, and undisciplined -,
'rce that great many people in this =
'untry think it is. 1t is, on the other %
and, probably the best organized and