Southern Friends

(See Cover)

With Latin courtesy and a touch of suppressed amusement the white-suited delegates of 20 American Republics last week solemnly gave to blue-jacketed U. S. Delegate Cordell Hull the honor of being the first to sign the Act they had adopted at Havana. Mr. Hull scrawled his name and hustled out of the chalk-white Capi-tolio, while his confreres leisurely went about the business of winding up the Americas' second conference of foreign ministers. The honor paid to the U. S. Secretary of State, who had drawn last place for precedence at the Conference, was not accorded because the Act of Havana was his work more than any other's--which it was--but because Mr. Hull, as he had been for ten sweltering days, was in a hurry. This time he had to catch a boat.

As the Orients left Morro Castle astern, the U. S. delegation of 25 experts, advisers and secretaries relaxed in the comparative comfort of a late afternoon sea breeze. Havana, where other delegations were packing their bags, prepared to resume its midsummer lethargy. Wiry old Cordell Hull, bone-tired but satisfied, relaxed too. If a piece of paper would keep the Americas free, he had the paper.

Results. The U. S. Secretary of State had wanted, above all, Pan-American moral support (the only kind of support the other countries could give) to the Monroe Doctrine. This he got, in the Convention of Havana, which sets up the machinery to seize and administer any European possessions in this hemisphere which are threatened with transfer of sovereignty. But Cordell Hull also wanted Pan-American sanction in case the U. S. finds it necessary to grab a colony or so before the Convention goes into effect. He got that too, in an emergency resolution.

If anybody doubted that Cordell Hull, in exchange for implementation of the Monroe Doctrine, had committed the U. S. to a great deal, he had only to read the text of a declaration adopted by the Conference, which said: "Any attempt on the part of a non-American State against the integrity or inviolability of the territory, the sovereignty or the political independence of any American State shall be considered an act of aggression against the States which sign this declaration." Thus the U. S., willy-nilly, as good as pledged military protection to the hemisphere. El Mercurio of Santiago, Chile, enthusiastically called this declaration "the most important and significant agreement ever reached in the American Hemisphere, and perhaps in the world."

Altogether the Conference passed one Convention, four declarations, 21 resolutions and one recommendation. Only the Convention of Havana requires ratification by the Congresses of 14 countries before going into effect. Declarations, resolutions and the recommendation became effective upon signing. Among them:

P:A resolution urging the Inter-American Neutrality Committee, which sits at Rio de Janeiro, to draft a convention to enforce the 300-mile maritime security zone.

P:Resolutions urging all the American Governments to prevent political activities by foreign diplomats; demanding laws against fifth columnists; authorizing the Pan American Union to call a conference to deal with subversive activities of aliens.

P:Resolutions urging the completion of a transoceanic railroad from Santos, Brazil, to Arica, Chile (across Bolivia); completion of the Pan-American Highway.

P:A declaration that all American Republics will settle their disputes peacefully.

P:A declaration of sympathy with Chile in breaking off relations with Spain.

P: A resolution calling for "a just, peaceful and prompt solution of the dispute over Belize [British Honduras] between Guatemala and Great Britain."

P:A resolution urging economic cooperation among the Americas, as proposed by Secretary Hull.

No secret was it that unofficial U. S. promises of economic aid had much to do with swinging other countries into line behind the Hull program. Back of the diplomatic front in Havana had worked sever al men who held the strings of the U. S. moneybags: President Milo Randolph Perkins of the Federal Surplus Commodities Corp., Earl N. Bressman, economic adviser to Secretary of Agriculture Henry Agard Wallace, young Paul H. Nitze, adviser to President Roosevelt's $10,000-a-year cartelman, James Vincent Forrestal (see p. 10).

Reactions. Ability of the U.S. to keep the hemisphere leadership that Cordell Hull pledged it to exercise will depend ultimately on the machines and man power of the U. S. For the short pull, while military strength is growing, it will depend on: 1) prompt Senate ratification of the Convention; 2) prompt economic aid to countries whose economies have been thrown out of kilter by the war.

Coolest of all the 21 Republics to what was done at the conference was Argentina, who would love to be the best U. S. South American neighbor if the U. S. would reciprocate. If Argentina is to orient herself into this hemisphere's policy, Argentines say, the U. S. must take some of the meats and grains that formerly went to Europe, which the food-surfeited U. S. has so far refused to do. This week Argentine Delegate Dr. Leopoldo Melo was in Washington, where he hoped to wangle an agreement to get into the U. S. some Argentine frozen beef. With such an agreement in his pocket when he returns to Buenos Aires, he may find his country less unwilling to trail along with the U. S. in hemisphere policy.

But Argentina, whose people would never fight for islands in the faraway Caribbean, is not likely to ratify the Convention of Havana in a hurry. Having made what she considers concessions in agreeing to the Act of Havana (although Dr. Melo signed with the reservation that his Government must approve), Argentina will most likely delay ratification until she sees whether her commercial future lies with the Americas or with Nazi Europe.

Happiest delegate, next to Cordell Hull, was Brazil's black-browed Mauricio de Nabuco, who, though he quietly influences foreign policy from his desk as Secretary General to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had never attended an international conference before. Son of an Ambassador who died at his Washington post in 1917, Mauricio de Nabuco believes that Brazil should follow U. S. policy. This does not keep him from being a shrewd trader. Last week he, too, was on his way to Washington, to collect a few favors for Brazil in return for his pro-U. S. stand at Havana, before going home to Rio de Janeiro to report to his chief, Getulio Vargas. If Senhores Vargas and Nabuco have their way, the best U. S. South American neighbor will be Brazil.

Getulio. Dictator-President Getulio Dornelles Vargas hopes his delegate will also be able to tell him that the U. S. people understand he is their firm and lasting friend. Although round little Dictator Vargas frequently makes fascist noises and although his country is well stocked with Germans and Italians, it distresses him to hear that many U. S. citizens think he would be the tool of Hitler or Mussolini. Truth is that internally the Vargas Estado Novo (New State) is about as autarchic as they come, but in external relationships Brazil wants no territory, needs protection, is hungry for foreign capital. This fits in neatly with U. S. foreign policy, so Senhor Vargas is a friend of the U. S.

The apparent paradox in Brazilian policy is explained by the fact that whereas in Italy and Germany autarchy was a means to external aggrandizement, in Brazil it was a means to internal development. Massive, unwieldy, naturally rich but undeveloped, Brazil was in danger of falling apart by centrifugal force when Getulio Vargas took it over in 1930.

The man whom everybody in Brazil but his enemies refers to as "Getulio" is no genius like Hitler, no actor like Mussolini, but a shrewd, opportunistic, honest politician, with a sincere desire to improve the lot of his people and not too many scruples about the means he employs. Brazilians say he can take off his socks without removing his shoes. He is a Gaucho from the rolling cattle country of Rio Grande do Sul, southernmost of Brazil's 20 federal States. His father who is still living was a General and Getulio grew up in Sao Borja, where lived his present Foreign Minister, Oswaldo Aranha. To this day Oswaldo Aranha's old mother tells Getulio just what she thinks of everything he does.

Getulio went to a private school, enlisted in the Army when he was 17, went from there to Rio Pardo Military School, quit in 1903, when he was 21, to study law at Porto Alegre. In 1908 he hung out his shingle in Sao Borja, and for the next few years he practiced law between terms in the State, then the Federal, Legislature. In 1926 he became Minister of Finance in the Cabinet of President Washington Luiz Pereira de Souza, as a reward for helping to elect Luiz. One year later he was President (Governor) of the State of Rio Grande do Sul.

Nobody took Getulio too seriously then.

Some of his associates called him chuchu, after a tasteless, cucumbersome vegetable. But he was a conciliator and a man people thought could be trusted not to snatch too much power for himself. So he became leader of a political group called the Liberal Alliance, which President Washington Luiz and most Rio newspapers were quick to denounce as Communist. Other members of the Alliance were Os waldo Aranha (then Secretary of State of Rio Grande do Sul), Joao Alberto Lins e Barrios (now high in Vargas' councils), J. A. Flores da Cunha and Miguel Costa (who broke with Getulio and were exiled). The Alliance put up Getulio as the "popular" candidate for President, against Washington Luiz' situacionista, i.e., official candidate, Julio Prestes de Albuquerque of Sao Paulo.

It was customary in Brazilian politics for the President to come from one of these four southeastern States: Sao Paulo, Minas Geraes, Rio Grande do Sul. or the old Federal District of Rio de Janeiro. These four States ran the whole sprawling country, chiefly for their own benefit, and the rest of Brazil was disintegrating into the status of a colony. It was also customary for the situacionista candidate to win, and win he did in 1930. But it was not uncustomary for the defeated candidate to start a revolution, and that was what Getulio did. He took the precaution of waiting until President-elect Prestes was out of the country and of persuading an ambitious Colonel named Pedro Aurelio Goes Monteiro that he would do right by the Army. He even persuaded the Gauchos that they could hitch their horses outside the Palacio Cattete in Rio de Janeiro. When Getulio entered Rio in the autumn of 1930 the Army had already been convinced of his merits and there was no fighting. Getulio and his leaders rode through Rio wearing red handkerchiefs, in automobiles bedecked with red flowers.

Estado Novo. Getulio exiled Washington Luiz and Julio Prestes, sent Congress packing, shelved the Constitution of 1891, began reorganizing the courts and the Government to make justice available to the poor man and end the tyranny of the coffee barons. He instituted wage-&-hour laws, pensions, vacations with pay. He set out to build workingmen's homes and primary schools for the poor. He promised that constitutional government would be re-established as soon as conditions warranted it. He announced that the "colonial period" of Brazil's history was over, the period when it produced only two or three crops; hereafter Brazil would become powerful industrially and agriculturally, would grow to be a world power.

Not until 1934 was Getulio legally elected President for a four-year term. In 1937 he called off the Presidential election ("In the election were men of too little parts") and imposed a state of siege. He needed to take only one more step to make his revolution complete, and he took that in November 1937. On Nov. 9 a member of the National Assembly blurted out that the Government should be overthrown. At 1 a.m. of Nov. 10 Getulio summoned his Cabinet to the Presidential Palace, passed around cigars and copies of a new totalitarian Constitution. It was proclaimed before sunset next day.

The press in the U. S., in Germany and Italy screamed that fascism had come to America, as perhaps it had. What the press failed to realize was that Vargas' New State was scarcely distinguishable from the rule he had given Brazil for seven years, that it was modeled less on European fascism than on good old Latin-American dictatorship. It limited the power of Congress (which has not yet come into being), set up a National Economic Council, increased the Presidential term to six years, permitted the President to succeed himself. Before the year was out Getulio abolished all political parties and burned the 20 State flags of Brazil in a public ceremony in Rio. He has not bothered to have himself reelected, although his six years were up in 1939.

In his first interview after he had set up his Estado Novo Getulio announced that Brazil would remain loyal to American ideals, would make no pacts with European countries. He has never missed a chance to reaffirm his friendship for the U. S. and he has yet to commit an unfriendly act. Friendship has paid well. As Ambassador and good-will salesman, Oswaldo Aranha went to Washington in

1934. In 1935 Aranha signed a reciprocal trade treaty with the U. S. In 1936 the U. S. increased the size of its naval mission in Rio. In 1937 $50,000,000 in U. S. gold was pledged to aid Brazilian currency. In 1939 the U. S. granted Brazil a $19,000,000 credit. So well had Oswaldo Aranha done his work that Getulio two years before had recalled him to be his Foreign Minister. This was a wise move in another respect, for the U. S. was beginning to think of popular Oswaldo Aranha as its best Brazilian friend. Getulio wants to be that.

Getulio likes to think of himself as the South American counterpart of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He has swapped visits with Roosevelt, has published his addresses in five volumes like Roosevelt, even looks faintly like Roosevelt. There are many similarities between the social objectives of Estado Novo and the New Deal, and in foreign policy the two Presidents differ little. Getulio needs & wants U. S. protection to keep Brazil in the hands of Brazilians, i.e., Vargas & friends. And the U. S., uncomfortably aware of the proximity of Brazil to Africa and Europe, needs & wants a strong friend south of the equator. Though Argentina may eventually become such a friend, common interests make Brazil by far the best bet for the present.

Getulio likes to use big fascist phrases like "vigorous peoples fit for life," the beginning, "tumultuous and fecund, of a new era," but when he gets on the subject of the Americas he can be just as eloquent. Last year, on the 117th anniversary of Brazil's independence, he delivered himself as follows:

"As Americans we are strong; we lack nothing; we own fertile lands, plentiful raw materials and intelligent men. We want a union, within the ideals of sovereignty and fidelity to our moral values and traditions, to insure America against all assaults of disorder."

Brazilians in general like Getulio's dictatorship. He has helped the poor man, left the rich alone, increased production, encouraged foreign investment. They also like to crack jokes about him. On Sundays Getulio checks up on the latest Vargas jokes while playing bad golf with his good friend Valentin Bougas, International Business Machines' famed "world's greatest salesman." One story has it that Getulio went to heaven and met St. Peter sitting at the gate.

"St. Peter," said he, "will you go and ask if I can come in?"

"No," said St. Peter. "If I do, you'll take my seat."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.