Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/286

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268
MEXICO AND ITS RECONSTRUCTION

comes less insistent than the duty to defend the rights of the home government and its citizens.

In the opinion of large numbers of people who have watched developments in Mexico during the revolution the time has long passed when foreign countries should content themselves with protests. The stronger foreign governments, during much of the period of the revolution, have had their attentions and energies occupied elsewhere. On other occasions they have frequently shown themselves unwilling to act when the steps they might take against a weak state could be attributed to selfish interests. It can not fail to be clear, however, that with the cessation of the larger hostilities in Europe and the continuance of chaotic conditions in Mexico the demand for the respect of human rights in Mexico will become more insistent.

What the actual situation of the foreigner is in Mexico, it is hard to state in a comprehensive way. Reports are contradictory and incomplete. The majority of those foreigners who lived in the republic ten years ago have probably left the country. There is no doubt, however, that the experiences they have endured during the past decade have been harrowing in many cases, and ones which in other times and circumstances would have brought foreign intervention.

The sufferings of American residents have been greater than those of other foreign colonies because Americans have been present in larger numbers; they have been residents, to a large degree, of the more disturbed regions and, at least in some instances, they have been the subject of a particular dislike. Nevertheless,