Mexican Murder

Down a Mexican road went a buggy. Inside were Mrs. Rosalie Evans, American wife of an Englishman, and her paymaster, John Strauss, with 2,000 pesos on his person.

When nearing her hacienda in Puebla, a group of armed men appeared suddenly, opened fire on the buggy. Five bullets entered the left side of Mrs. Evans; she was instantly killed. As her body fell out of the buggy, her hair caught in the wheels, the frightened horse tore off at breakneck speed, dragging the body with it, causing terrible mutilations to the face. Strauss was removed to a hospital, seriously wounded.

The Mexican Government said that robbery was the motive of the crime, promised enquiries by civilian and military authorities and apprehension and punishment of the murderers.

Mrs. Rosalie Evans was engaged in a long fight with the Mexican Government which had tried to expropriate her hacienda, transformed by her late husband and herself from a barren wilderness into "one of the beauty spots of agricultural Mexico."

During her fight, Mrs. Evans enlisted the support of the British Charge des Archives, H. A. C. Cummins, who wrote many letters on the subject to the Mexican Government. The Government called these letters impudent and discourteous, ordered Mr. Cummins to leave the country (TIME, June 23, et seq.). The whole matter was brought up in the British Parliament. Premier MacDonald defended Mr. Cummins, said his letters were not insulting.

The Mexican Government thereupon decided to expel Mr. Cummins, but Mr. Cummins was not easy to expel; he shut himself up in the British Legation building and would not budge. The Government did not carry out its threat and Mr. Cummins, recalled by the British Government, was allowed to leave the country peacefully.