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Show MEXICO SEIZES BORDERRESORT LOS ANGELES. Dec. 29 (UP)-American (UP)-American investors today protested protest-ed the Mexican government's seii-ure seii-ure of the American-owned ca-r ca-r eino at Agua Caliente, a J10.000.000 pleasure resort on the frontier which Americans built during prohibition pro-hibition times and which a few years ago was a famous drinking and gambling refuge for movie Stan and other person, t re..-., President Lazaro Cardenas signed a decree last night expropriating Auua Caliente for Mexico under that country's socialisation program. The lands and buildings will be used for industrial schools. Mexican Mexi-can authorities said the owners ( would be reimbursed within 10 years in accordance with the tax values of the properties. Baron Long, head of the American Ameri-can syndicate which built the re- , sort, said he would protest the seizure to the United States government. gov-ernment. "I propose to defend our Interests Inter-ests to the fullest extent," he said. He described the Mexican decree ' as "a violation of a -commercial agreement." Agua Caliente lies a few miles below the Mexican border town of Tijuana, and consists of a luxuri- , ous hotel, casino, bungalows, spa, golf course, andthe $4,000,000 race track, where a J 100,000 handicap race, then the richest in the world, once climaxed a gala season. In its heyday, soon after it was 1 opened in 1928, Agua Caliente was one of the gayest spots on the continent. con-tinent. The influx of racing patrons pa-trons provided daily fashion parades, pa-rades, and celebrities from the movie colony and vacationists from all parts of the country crowded the casino and bar each night. The history of the resort, however, how-ever, was one of vicissitude. First came the depression to reduce the ' spending. Then the United States repealed prohibition and Mexican bars no longer were a novelty. Next came a Mexican reform that abolished abol-ished gambling in the border states and closed the casino. Agua Caliente Cal-iente waned in popularity, finally was closed and grew up in weeds. This year the syndicate made energetic en-ergetic plans to reopen it. The race track where the great ' Australian horse. Phar Lap. once ran, now is owned independently of the hotel, by a group headed by Gene Normille, southern California Cali-fornia racing figure. Normille said his attorney in Mexico City had advised him that the track was not involved in the expropriation decree. de-cree. The expropriation decree was In accordance with the Mexican agrarian agrar-ian law, under which no individual or corporation may own more than 247 acres of irrigated land. The seizures have affected large Mexico Mexi-co landowners as well as Americana, |