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Show VILLA WOULD SHAVE GEHERALGARRANZA SHORN OF HIS WHISKERS, FIRST . CHIEF WOULD LOSE FALSE FRONT, SAYS VILLA. Lays Claim to An Army of Seventeen Thousand Men and Declares That He Can Easily Get Ammunition Ammuni-tion and Provisions. Douglas. Ariz. General Francisco Villa has given out a written statement state-ment in which he says: "You ask me to tell you my strength. I will not lie to you, for I never lie. Altogether Al-together I have 17,000 armed men who are still loyal to my cause. Five thousand thou-sand are with me now. Three thousand thou-sand are in the garrison at Juarez, 4,000 in Chihuahua and vicinity and 3,500 in Jiminez to hold back the advance ad-vance of the Carranzistas. The balance bal-ance of the troops are scattered as small garrisons t in less important towns. "The American government may believe be-lieve itself very smart, but it has not been able to stop me from getting all the ammunition and provisions I want. The materials for war have been paid for out of my own money and I have crossed thelborder under the noses of American soldiers. "The fact that I am spending my own money to buy ammunition and provisions should satisfy the people of the world that I am standing by my men and that I have no immediate intention in-tention of quitting in my fight for the liberty of my people. "Should I have Carranza in my power, pow-er, instead of killing him I would shave him. This would do him greater harm, because then he would be shorn of that false front, which, to the ignorant, ignor-ant, indicates intelligence. "Carranza cannot be president. Al-varo Al-varo Obregon, however, is of another type. He is strong and I admire strong men. And he admires me. But since he has cast in his lot with Carranza I shall continue to fight him until either he or I has been swept off of Mexican Mexi-can soil. Were Carranza out .of the way, General Obregon and I could soon come to peace terms and we would work together to build up my country." |