THE OUTLOOK IN THE ARGENTINE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 86, 4 January 1918, Page 6

THE OUTLOOK IN THE ARGENTINE

* GERMAN INTRIGUE RAMPANT LIES ABOUT "NORTH AMERICAN PERIL" (Special Correspondent to tho "New York Evening Post.") Buenos Aires, October 6 When Count Luxburg, German Min-ister-Plenipotentiary to Argentina, officially closed his diplomatic career some three weeks ago, it certainly looked as though the popular outcry in favour of a rupture of relations with Germany would sway the indecision of the Government, seeing that both Chambers of Congress had voted in this sense with large majorities in support of such severance. A monster meeting, quite the biggest thing of its kind ever seen in Buenos Aires and addressed by men of the highest standing,. was expressly gathered "to support a similar decision, but despito the manifest will of the people, tho present Government now appears to be firmly pledged to neutrality, on the ground that tho explanations givon by Berlin in the matter of tho famous telegrams are entirely satisfactory. This, be it said most emphatically, is not tho view of the man in the street. Government has publicly stated, by the mouth of the President of the Republic, that Germany has humbled herself before Argentina as she has done to no one since the var began, and Germany also lays stress on tho fact that the insolent cynicism of tho Luxburg dispatches was not approved at the Wilhelmstrasso and had no effect whatsoever on submarine action. . , It is scarcely necessary to point out that the German story does not hang together, since it treats tho starting point of the whole affair as being the day when the United States Government first startled the world with its straightforward account of the messages and their underhand transmission. Presumably, Berlin read them a month or so earlier, if dates are anything to go by. And it is clear to si that to Germany the head and front of their emissary's offence lies m.the fact - that he broke the Eleventh Commandment, and was found out. Therefore, he may well pass a mauvais quart d'heure on his return to Berlin.

German Intrigue. Meanwhile German intripic m Argentina becomes more patent than ever The Spanish element here has from the outset of the war been very carefully nursed by German interests. Two daily papers, ' La aaceta do Ls pana," which, as its title implies, i ( professedly Spanish, and La Union, which claims to he Argentine, ere founded shortly after the far began bein' r continuously financed by ber manlunds. Both journals have a com. paratively largo-circulation both are at one in their abuse of the Alius, their insistence on absolute neutrality, and their frequent allusions to the menace of "Yankee" domination in South America generally, and in Ar gontina in particular. Coupled with this propaganda, which is interwoven into the whole character of the news that those papeis give, local as wel as international, there has of late been a recrudescence of street agitatois, sneaking under cover of reference to tno existing labour difficulties, and after opening with the strike gambit, going on to Assert that Argentina's present troubles are all due to the Allies, but that they are as nothing compa.ed with what must follow an open rupture with Germany. The present writer has dieard many such discourses, always i a working-class district, and has been struck by the fact that special phasis is invariably, laid on the same points, apparently in- obedienco to n general order. One of the "S"™® most insisted on is the possibility ot Argentina being called on foi troops, ancl this tells heavily with the wonjen. This bare outlino of a far-reaching network of ostensibly neutral and actually Teutonic propaganda is all that space affords. Whether there is r.ii> truth in the widespread rumour that Spanish influence has also been used through the correct diplomatic channels to urge Argentine neutrality cannot bo categorically statedl. . It certainly appears probable, judging by the very sudden alteration in Government s attitude towards the fact of » possible rupture with Germany. Not can anyone as yet affirm tillat sold is being employed with the lavish hand that. was used in the United States, judging by recent disclosures. What is very certain is that a large body of Argentine official opinion has been won to the conclusion that any open 'break with Geimanj would be exceedingly impolitic, seeing that there is every reason to tear aggressive measures on the part ot Brazil, acting as the "agent provocateur" for the United States. .. To the frank Anglo-Saxon liuud this idea savours so much of the absurd as to be unworthy of serious refutation, but there is no getting away from tho fact that it is kept very much in the foreground by the self-same group of political and public men who- today are openly calling for 'neutrality just as strongly as three years ago they were extolling the virtues and prowess of Germany.

"North American Menace." There has just seen the light a truly remarkable book, ably written in excellent Castilian and popularly attributed to a formerly prominent polltician. It bears the title Nuestra Giierra," and the highly decorativo cover shows the American eagle clutching <in its talons? a Brazilian flag and swooping down on the still-uplifted Ai - gentino banner, which waves at the head of a standard based on the map of the River Plate territories, Argentina, and Uruguay. Pedro de Cordoba, the ostensible writer—the name is admittedly a pseudonym—proves therein by figures and references to occurrences in South American history for the past, fifty years that now is the acceptable time for Argentina and Chile to combine against _ the. North American menace (sic)which is likened unto an administration by a modern Pontius Pilate. And the author ends his book with the significant sentence: "If this Pontius Pilate coincs accompanietl bv satellites recruited from thnexhubenrnt peoples of-imperial and tropical Brazil, what ji black fato must bo ours."

To this writer Pan-Americanism is an expressive charade, tho American of tho United States reading the phraso thus: "I am Americanism, and you others are the pan (Spanish pan-bread), \ih;ch I purpose, eating by myself. In short, "Nuestra Guerra" is a work that is worthy of careful perusal by those interested in Pan-American affairs and not afraid to study the arguments that can be trumped up against their own all-too-altruistic point of view. Whether they arc merely the ideas of a German trouble-fete or spring from ■ conviction they i are of value at the present time as showing that the existence of a public inclined to accept such views means fertile soil for the intriguer, and, at the risk of being tedious, one would again urge ! iv> pytreipo gravity of the Argentine situation, due to the far from despicable power of tho influential minority of Argentines who arc favouring German aims. Aiid at the same time one would also accentuate the advisability of affording cvorv possible support to the level-headed majority who sec clearly that "neutrality" to-day is playing Germany's game and damaging this "Republic's future, as well as tho possible harmonious coalition of all the Southern nations, in a manner that mav never be remedied once war is done ALWYN HALLAM.