Nation's Birthday

On Sept. 7, 1822, at Ypiranga near Sao Paulo, Brazil's Prince Regent Pedro received a batch of dispatches from Portugal telling of oppressive measures planned for the colony. Then & there Prince Pedro uttered what Brazilians now call the Grito de Ypiranga: "Independence or death!" He revolted against his father the Emperor, declared Brazil independent, became its first monarch, Dom Pedro I. Although Brazil later overthrew his son, Dom Pedro II, and became a republic, Brazilians this week celebrated the 119th anniversary of their independence with as little animosity toward Portugal as U.S. citizens now feel toward Great Britain on the Fourth of July.

As far as the eye could see harmony reigned in Brazil, and between Brazil and all nations. Side by side in front of the new War Ministry in Rio de Janeiro stood President Getulio Dornellas Vargas and his Minister of War, General Eurico Dutra. Their bland faces gave no hint of the tension existing within the Vargas Government -- a tension which only recently caused a grave but laughable Cabinet crisis. According to the story that leaked out, Foreign Minister Oswaldo Aranha and other pro-U.S. ministers had planned an elaborate coup to get rid of Axis-sympathizing General Dutra.

On the appointed day they had all filed into a Cabinet meeting and presented their resignations, to give Getulio Vargas "a free hand in the critical hour of Brazil's history." When all had offered their resignations but War Minister Dutra they all looked at him expectantly. Said he:

"Getulio Vargas has always been our leader; him we have always followed. If it is necessary for our country's good that we all resign, I suggest that our Leader be the first to offer his resignation to the people. Then I will follow him, as I always have."

Nobody resigned.

Before President Vargas and War Minister Dutra, in apparent harmony, paraded Brazilian soldiers, 20,000 strong, Argentine naval cadets and Paraguayan military cadets. Beside the President and his War Minister stood Argentina's War Minister Juan N. Tonazzi, grim-faced by nature and not by virtue of the fact that Argentina and Brazil are somewhat jealous of each other's influence in Paraguay. With a harmonious rattle, U.S. -made light tanks and German-made anti-aircraft guns rolled down the Prac,a da Republica. Even U.S.-ousted Nazi Consul General Fritz Wiedemann, who turned up in Rio for the birthday party, purred that he was on a "special mission."

Harmonious but stern was Getulio Vargas' broadcast to his country : "Any aggression from whatever source will find us the greatest block of varied nationalities ever got together in any defensive alliance." In the same vein Franklin Roosevelt sent a message, read over the radio, to his good southern neighbor.

Harmonious, too, were the denials of U.S., Brazilian and Portuguese officials that as a birthday present Portugal had given Brazil a first lien on the Azores, the Cape Verde and possibly other Portuguese islands in the Atlantic. A score of years ago there was actually a popular movement in Portugal to join Brazil, her onetime colony which has far outgrown her. To many statesmen it now seems at least as logical that Brazil should protect Portugal's possessions as that the U.S. should protect Britain's. And if Brazil is not strong enough to do so alone, then other American nations (i.e., the U.S.) might be induced to cooperate.

Three weeks ago a Portuguese mission headed by onetime Foreign Minister Julio Dantas left Brazil. Although it was ostensibly a cultural mission, it had conferred with the Foreign Office, with the War Ministry and with President Vargas. Of more than cultural significance was a parting statement by Deputy Joao do Amaral, especially designated by Portugal's Dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar to be a member of the mission. Said he, in effect:

1) The U.S., Portugal and Brazil are each Atlantic nations that must insure their security;

2) Should continental Portugal fall, it will be up to Brazil to carry on for the Portuguese.

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