Growth of an Ideal

The dream boat of Pan-American solidarity, manned by men of good will and propelled by idealism, last week weathered the roughest storm since it was launched nine years ago as the U.S. Good Neighbor Policy. At Rio de Janeiro foreign ministers representing the American republics worked to make the dream of complete solidarity come true. They nearly failed&151;nearly succeeded&151;nearly failed again&151;finally made it seem nearly true.

Apparent Failure. As the crucial week began, Argentina's Foreign Minister Enrique Ruiz Guinazu was balky, Chile's Juan Bautista Rossetti was out of line. These two argued persistently against a unanimous open diplomatic break with the Axis. Despite new air-cooling in the Itamaraty Palace, delegates got so hot under the collar that a Thursday "deadline" was set for all to make up their minds.

Tired, peevish, none of them feeling like accomplished diplomats, much less like statesmen, the delegates Monday night straggled part way up Corcovado peak to an official diplomatic reception in President Vargas' marble Guahabara Palace. They kissed the hand of Senhora Vargas, moved through tapestried halls to a garden buffet table and outdoor cocktail bars. By the time Rio's municipal ballet had flitted on & off an outdoor stage the tropic night had begun to work its magic.

From flowered arbors came soft laughter and then the swirl and rustle of silk and satin as Brazilian debutantes swayed to the congas and rumbas of a red-coated samba band. Mothers and grandmothers danced, too. Ruiz Guinazu's strict Argentine social code frowns on such informality. But he watched. Occasionally he tapped his foot, and smiled.

Ruiz Guinazu wanted to be gay, and he wanted to be a statesman. He seemed to be inclined to get Argentina in accord with the other nations. He could see how the dream shone. But he was not his own master; he was only the servant of Argentina and Argentina's Acting President Ramon S. Castillo.

President Castillo could not see (any better than many men in-the U.S. had been able to see, in the months before Pearl Harbor) that every free country in the world stands in danger. He feared that he and his country might lose some shreds of sovereignty. From Buenos Aires he announced abruptly: "Right or wrong, Argentina will not break relations with Germany, Japan and Italy." The hemisphere dream of unity in action appeared defeated.

Apparent Triumph. By mid-week Sumner Welles looked bored. But after a private three-hour session with Chile's Rossetti, Argentina's Ruiz Guinazu, Peru's Alfredo Solf y Muro, and Brazil's Oswaldo Aranha, Mr. Welles was jubilant. "If I had been earlier I would have ordered champagne for you all," he told waiting newsmen.

No diplomat in recent years had more right to call for a celebration. The "triumph" of the Conference--and it was largely his--had apparently been reached with agreement that on Thursday a four-point resolution would be unanimously approved. The third point was to be the nub. It would declare: "The American republics . . . cannot continue diplomatic relations with Japan, Germany and Italy, since Japan has attacked and the others have declared war upon a country of our hemisphere."

But the triumph won by the U.S. delegate was nipped by a U.S. ineptitude. In Washington Senator Tom Connally, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, could not resist putting in his two bits' worth about Argentina. Said he: "We are trusting that before this conference is over President Castillo will change his mind, or the Argentine people will change Presidents."

All Aid Short of Rupture. Given a ready-made opportunity to mount a high horse, Acting President Castillo repudiated the proposed declaration. Faithfully, Ruiz Guinazu proposed a compromise--to change Article III's grammar so that the phrase "cannot continue diplomatic relations . . ." would read "can discontinue diplomatic relations. . . ." Thus Argentina would be released from any anti-Axis commitment.

On Friday Mr. Welles, President Vargas, Mexico's Ezequiel Padilla, Uruguay's Alberto Guani and others leading the fight for an open diplomatic rupture with the Axis gave way. If the U.S. Fleet had been bombarding Tokyo the result might have been different. It might also have been different if Chile's coming Presidential election were over, or if Argentina's Acting President had been less conservative.

Around a 60-ft. jacaranda wood table in Itamaraty Palace, the delegates gathered to announce the compromise resolution. His face ash-grey with disappointment, chainsmoking, Sumner Welles leaned forward with his head on three fingers of his left hand. From time to time he carefully mopped his forehead with a folded handkerchief. Chile's Rossetti continually and nervously smeared his hand over his sweaty face. Argentina's Ruiz Guinazu clasped and unclasped his hands with a prayerlike gesture, toyed with a large ring on the third finger of his left hand.

For nearly three hours the delegates made speeches. Most violent was Chile's Rossetti. He literally screamed at calm, impassive Padilla, who had described the furor over "no podran continuar" and "podran no continuar" as a "drama of grammar." Chile had called the Conference in the first place, and now Chile's representative was one of the two most active in preventing unity. Argentina alone might not have gone through with intransigence; bolstered by Chile, her position was far stronger.

Mexico's Padilla, whose early speech on "the free American" (TIME, Jan. 26) expressed the optimum hopes of the Conference, drew cheers again when he said: "This is not the time to defend material riches; this is the time and hour of sacrifice. . . . Let us sign the Magna Charta of united America in the midst of the gravest hour ever struck for magna chartas."

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Caracciolo Parra-Perez used only one gesture as he rose to speak. He shook a furious finger under the pained nose of Ruiz Guinazu.

To gaunt, dog-tired Sumner Welles fell the task of summing up the U.S. position, of agreeing to a declaration that only "recommended" that the Americas break with the Axis, instead of tossing into Axis teeth a 21-voiced cry of defiance and scorn. But so far as they had gone the American republics had gone together.

As the Conference drew to a close this week passports were being handed to departing diplomats all over the Americas. Acting individually, instead of collectively, all 21 nations except Ecuador, Brazil, Chile and Argentina had severed diplomatic ties with the Axis. Ecuador, still worrying about its border dispute with Peru, and Brazil, still trying to have the ABC powers as well as the hemisphere act in concert, were ready for similar action. Chile was reported swinging into line at last. The dream of Pan American solidarity was still on its way to truth.

"For the first time in the history of our hemisphere," said Sumner Welles, "joint action of the highest political character has been taken by all of the American nations."

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