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Show oo LEGISLATORS OF MEXICO HAVE AN UNLIMITED RULE MEXICO CITY, aug 24 The rlghl of the constituent legislator is almost unlimited and cannot be checked when I dealing with the public organization by rights acquired by private partiea Examples which have been cited are sufficient to demonstrate that when the constituent legislature has considered consid-ered it of general interest to enac any law of retroactive effect, he has! done so even if he has passed ove- ac j quired rights of many years which hav been sanctioned almost as rights inherent to man. The only fundamental fundamen-tal question is this: Is the public interest in-terest at stake when petroleum laws have been enacted? Evidently yes Then the state has had the right to en act such laws. These stat.-meni.- . pr. -s the :egal ; grounds upon which the .Mi xican gov ernment bases the right of the con- 1 stltucnt assembly ot Queretaro which enacted the Mexican constitution of1 1917. to place in that document article 27 nationalizing the oil lands. They j also provide a defense for the preslden- j tial decrees on petroleum, developing article 27. which foreien oil interests arc attacking as confiscatory. I The statements themselves are tak-i en from official documents given to ' the correspondent exclusively by Yeon Salinas, sub-secretary of commerc-: and industry and also chief of the petroleum pe-troleum bureau of the department. The defense of the retroactivity of article 27 and the subsequent presi dentlal decrees as prepared by Attor n Qulles Eloroudy hlch forms part of the government's defense of its attitude atti-tude on petroleum, continues in part as follows "The only serious article which ap parentl Is of great force is that declaring de-claring the petroleum law absolutel;. retroactive This argument can be answered an-swered Irom two points constitutional' and common legislation " "Regarding the first point the theory theo-ry hereby sustained is that the constituent con-stituent legislator can almost establish in a country's constitution all legal principles which, in hi? Judgment, arc good for tho nation in such manner1 that, whatever rights are established j by another anterior constitution, a new constitution can derogate them wifhou; difficulty "Article 27 of the ruling con-Uitu lion has introduced a necessary form In the judgment of the legislators concerning con-cerning the regime of petroleum land ownership Within the theory already expressed by the constitution the con lti BC of Queretaro was within its most absolute rlghts'to introduce this re form and give the law retroactive ef-feet ef-feet This constitutional reform is con sidered necessary for the benefit of the majority and for society In general, since that reform would result in the state having in band the means of do veloplng Its petroliferous wealth on i larger scale than formerly and this wealth would not, as in former times, be the special patrimony of a few powerful pow-erful corporations who have given the nation onlj im-init" leant participation in the enormous incomes they 1m W' oh tained for themselves." An additional and supplemental statement furhjBhed 'he correspondeni Irom the same source gives the land In .Mexico owned and leased b petro ompanies and individuals, a summary of the mass of figures submitted showing show-ing that 677,553 hectatres are owped and 2,012,604 hectares are e;ned, i hectare being about two and one-half acres. |