$97-74

"The government of Brazil has a perfect right to buy munitions in this country," announced Secretary of State Henry Lewis Stimson last week. When Brazil's government promptly ordered ten used Curtiss-Wright planes, the U. S. War Department consented to provide, for $97.74, certain "brackets" needed to adapt the ten planes for use as bombers. The U. S.

Navy Department was understood to have released for sale to Brazil several Vought observation fighting planes.

These facts and acts appeared to irritate both British editors and the British Foreign Office last week. The Manchester Guardian accused the Hoover Administration of "taking sides" in Brazil's civil war. When British newshawks pecked around the Foreign Office, inquiring whether British firms were going to get any orders from Brazil for aircraft and munitions they were told a number of things "not for publication." Cabled New York Times Correspondent Ferdinand Kuhn Jr.:

"Government officials here hint they would like to know what the Brazilian government promised in return for Mr. Stimson's benediction. The British have had long experience in such transactions, and take it for granted that the State Department is not entirely altruistic this time." Prisoner Proof. In the actual theatre of Brazil's Civil War--an area as large as the U. S. states east of the Mississippi River--towns and cities were frequently "captured" by both Federals and Rebels simultaneously last week--if their official announcements were to be believed. ' The main fighting line, insofar as it existed, was the southern frontier of the great coffee state of Sao Paulo, "Heart of Brazil," bailiwick of President Washington Luis and his ruling clique. It appeared certain that the southern Rebels had not advanced north of this frontier.

The northern Rebels, attempting to converge upon Rio de Janeiro from the State of Minas Geraes and from further north were unquestionably held at bay last week.

Some 300 prisoners were produced by the Federals, and some 200 by the Rebels, the only tangible evidence that both sides had made gains. In Montevideo, capital of Uruguay, where sympathy with the Rebels runs high, reports were zealously circulated that "a long conflict is in prospect, and, should decisive victory prove impossible, the Rebel states may be expected to secede." Uruguayans hope fervently to enlarge their little republic by welcoming in a few Brazilian secession states.

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