Republican farmer., 1919-04-04
No Official Confirmation Has Reached State De
 partment As Yet. LAPS HAVE LONG
 SOUGHT HOLD Land Originally Granted to American Company by
 General Diaz.

Washington, March 31-The American embassy at Mexico City was instructed today to mako inquiries concerning the report that the Mexican gov ernment has granted agricul- tural concessions to Japanese in Lower California and to re- port the facts as quickly as pos sible.
 Washington, March 31--No official confirmation has reached the depart ment about the concessions and sur prise was occasioned by the despatch from Mexico City yesterday quoting General Amado Agllirre, under secre- tary of development and agriculture. as saying they had been granted The American government Is interested, both because of the apparent success of Japanese in obtaining a. long sought foothold in Lower California and because the tract of land involved was developed and is claimed by an American company, whose rights were declared forfeited by the Mexican government in 1917.
 The land, upwards of million acres, below the California border was granted by the then President
 ltnz to the California and Mexican Land Company of Los Angeles, of which General Harrison Grey Otis of Los Angeles was the leading figure It was desert land with nothing grow Ing on it but sage brush, cactus and chaparrel. The soil. however. was rich, in places 80 feet deep, formed by 1eposits for generations by the Col orado river.
 it produced nothing for Mexico and Ghe expense of putting water on the land was so great that no one in Mexico would undertake 1t. The American company spent more than S1, 900, 600 in irrigation work before the tract was productive. One of the re- Guirernents of the concession was that the land should be irrigated. An other was that 1t should be settled with farmers and ranchers. Both these requirements are said to have been met by the American company. When Diaz was deposed and the rev. olutionary period begun, the Ameri- can settlers were driven from the land by revoluuonists. Live stock was stolen and several settlers were killed. For two years the land was uncared for arid then the company found that Japanese settlers were willing to take Ip farms anI cultivate them. The Japanese were protected by the Mexicans, whatever party of revolutionists werein power in that section. Short time leases are said 10 have been granted to Japanese farm CTS, but the American owners refused to sell any of the land to the Japanese pr to grant long term leases
 On April 2, 1917, the Mexican gov ernment declared the tract confiscat- ed.according to the statement of Gem eral Agulrre and, then apparently, the Mexican government opened negOtia- tions with a Japanese syndicate.
 Acting Secretary of State Phillips said today that the Los Angeles com pany proposed about two years ago to grant a Japanese corporation long term leases on a large portion, if not all c4 the tract. At that time the company still was unable to maintain American settlers there, but when the state department objected to the pro- posed leases the company dropped its negotiations with the Japanese. When Senator Phelan of California recently snforned the department that neso- tiations had been renewed, the com pany's attention was directed to tho American governments attitude.