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58 is provided against the exercise of this most despotic power. No one who is at all acquainted with the character of the men who have come into office under Carranza can for a moment suppose that the great majority of them will neglect such an opportunity for robbing the foreign owners of mining and petroleum properties either by arbitrarily taking from them the larger or more valuable part of their holdings or by extorting money from them by threats of exercising this power.

In the same Article 27 is found the following provision, relating to mineral deposits, including petroleum:



"In the nation is vested direct ownership of all minerals or substances which in veins, layers, masses, or beds constitute deposits whose nature is different from the components of the land, such as minerals from which metals and metaloids used for industrial purposes are extracted; beds of precious stones, rock salt, and salt lakes formed directly by marine waters; products derived from the decomposition of rocks, when their exploitation requires underground work; phosphates which may be used for fertilizers; solid mineral fuels; petroleum and all hydro-carbons—solid, liquid, or gaseous."

Under the national laws formerly in force, "solid mineral fuels; petroleum and all