Decline of the Good Neighbor

At least three main facts about U.S. diplomacy became clear last week. First, the U.S. is no longer sure of its policy, if it had one, towards Argentina, and as a result is handling it badly. Second, if the continued ill-treatment of Argentina is the present shape of the Good Neighbor policy, it is no longer supported with enthusiasm by other American republics. Third, the policy, or whatever it is, is getting nowhere.

After two years of fist-shaking and name-calling in lieu of clarity of purpose, Secretary of State Cordell Hull last week left off shuffling papers and got around to applying the second* faltering economic sanction against Argentina: he barred U.S.-flag ships from calling at Argentine for northbound cargo.

Lone Game. Actually this sanction was puny punitive step that shocked Argentina's pride more than it hurt the Argentine pocketbook. A point not made in the State Department bugle-call statement about its action was that only eight, or fewer, U.S. ships a month had been calling at Argentine ports. Most Argentine exports to the U.S. have been carried in Argentine bottoms, which are still free to enter U.S. ports. Latin American and Brit ish ships continue their brisk trade with Argentina.

Two days after the shipping embargo, President Roosevelt came to the support of Hull's action. Said the President: "This situation presents the extraordinary paradox of the growth of Nazi-Fascist in fluence and the increasing application of Nazi-Fascist methods in a country ... at the very time that those forces of aggression are drawing ever closer in final defeat and judgment in Europe and elsewhere in the world. . . . The Argentine Government has repudiated solemn inter-American obligations. . . ."

Public reaction in Argentina was a deepening of dislike for the U.S. Franklin Roosevelt had hopefully said that "the vast majority of the people of Argentina have remained steadfast in their faith in their own free, democratic traditions." But a Buenos Aires audience rose to boo and catcall insults when Hull appeared in a newsreel shot of the Dumbarton Oaks conference.*

There was clear evidence of deteriorating relations between the other American republics and the State Department. The firm hand and general know-how on Latin America seemed to have disappeared with the resignation of Diplomats Sumner Welles and Lawrence Duggan. Recently seven Latin American ambassadors met with Hull to discuss the participation of their nations in the development of a world security organization. At the close of the meeting the proud ambassadors told reporters that they had been lectured, had been allowed to say nothing, and treated like schoolchildren. Further, the Latin American leaders now want to call a meeting of the Hemisphere's foreign ministers, to discuss postwar economic conditions. Hull has given this meeting no encouragement. Until two years ago, that would have killed the idea. Now the ministers are pressing it anyway.

Trade Is Trade. But what irks the Latin Americans most is what they regard as the unrealistic economic philosophy of the State Department. The Latin Americans are hardheaded traders. They want higher prices for their sugar (see LATIN AMERICA) and higher prices for their coffee. They do not understand the U.S. policy that permits one Government agency to shake the "big stick" at a neighbor republic while other Government agencies in Washington continue to play footie with that neighbor's merchants, placing large orders for Argentine corn, frozen turkeys, linseed, meat, quebracho bark and hides.

Equally realistic are the British. From the Argentine Britain gets 500.000 tons of beef a year, and in Argentina Britain has $1,375,000,000 of investments, a huge stake in postwar trade. Official circles in London greeted President Roosevelt's blast at Argentina with a studied silence. But the Manchester Guardian probably echoed the sentiments of most Britons. Said the Guardian, editorially, "The U.S. is going rather far in its measure of coercion ... no doubt it would like us to follow suit. We like the Argentine brand of fascism as little as does Mr. Cordell Hull, but we also prefer Argentine beef to American pork."

* The first economic sanction, Aug. 16: freez ing Argentine gold stocks in the U.S.* For Argentine press reaction, see Press.

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