Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/243

Rh relative to the advantages that will result to the Republic by permitting foreigners to acquire property therein" it had been decided that "a frank policy and an interest well understood demand that no further delay be permitted in making such concessions as may tend to the prosperity and development of the Republic by the increase of population, by the extension and division of property taking also into consideration the fact that by these measures the security of the nation will be more assured, since the foreigners who are owners of property  will be so many defenders of the national rights, considering also the encouragement which will be received by agriculture, commerce, and other industries, which are the fountains of public wealth; and lastly, that the opinion generally manifested is in favor of the concession," it was decreed that foreigners could acquire real estate freely but not more than two country properties in the same department. Foreigners employed in operation of such properties were not subject to military service except of a police character. Though this decree issued from the central government, it did not overthrow the rule that colonization projects were still in the hands of the states.

The war with the United States brought to those interested in colonization a conflict of feeling. They felt that colonization was responsible for the national disaster, which ended with the loss of about half of Mexico's territory, yet they continued to believe that only by colonization could the republic which "found itself spread abroad in an immense territory divided by high mountains, by great rivers, and deserts, which could not be