The Dominion TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1928. THE UNITED STATES AND HER NEIGHBOURS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 122, 21 February 1928, Page 8

The Dominion TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1928. THE UNITED STATES AND HER NEIGHBOURS

The Pan-American Conference at Havana has revealed a spirit of revolt on the part of the Latin American republics against the United States. ,A cablegram published yesterday reported the resignation from the Conference of the Argentine delegate as a protest against the failure to include a free trade declaration in the new Pan-American Union Convention. It also reported an “impassioned speech” by Mr. C. E. Hughes disclaiming any intention on the part of the United States, either now or in the future, to develop imperialistic aspirations in the South American continent.

Mr. Hughes’s disclaimer, in view of growing Latin American uneasiness as to the ultimate effects of United States “dollar diplomacy,” was timely. That it will be effective is another matter. Latin American suspicions of the United States have by this time become deep-seated, and to some extent are shared by some European nations. The Monroe doctrine, that historic Presidential intimation to Europe that the Central and Southern American republics were the especial care and responsibility of the United States Government, has developed by force of circumstances responsibilities of a delicate and embarrassing kind. Therein, as the London Times remarked editorially one day last year, its position is not unlike that of the British Empire. “The United States,” pointed out the Times, "is finding out, as we found out long ago, how slippery is the slope of Imperialism, a slope where the best intentions prove of no avail, and where force of circumstances is always in charge.”

When the Monroe doctrine was promulgated, the Latin American republics were not by any means the wealthy and responsible communities they are to-day. Their principal industry was revolution. 1 Now they are established and self-conscious States, beginning to manifest their desire for complete independence. United States influence in these republics is demonstrated principally in peaceful penetration by dollar diplomacy, and in armed intervention in cases where, as in Nicaragua at present, internal disorders threaten American life and property. Each of these manifestations of the proximity and might of the United States the republics are beginning to find irksome. Less than a year ago La Nation, of Buenos Aires, quoted Dr. Saurez, an acknowledged leading Argentine statesman in Pan-American discussions, as saying:—

“Latin America’s first duty is to refrain from attending all PanAmerican gatherings, as long as the United States persists in its monarchical policy, imposing its will by strong-arm methods on the small republics of Central America. The United States sees the Pan-America ideal as a mere economic activity, whereas Latin America sees in it a political objective.”

The Journal do Brasil, of Rio de Janeiro, about the same time advised the republics that if they desired to be independent of American interference, they would have to begin by making themselves independent of American dollars. The available statistics of the trade flow between the United States and Latin America—those of 1926—show that the commercial good-will of the latter represents an enormous sum. In that year United States investments in Central and South America were valued at eight hundred thousand millions sterling, as against five hundred thousand millions invested in Europe, and represented forty per cent, of the total foreign investments. There was a large increase in Latin American exports to the United States during 1900-1925, but a falling off in 1926, while the trade from 1 the United States side was an overwhelming tide in proportion. Not unnaturally, the republics are beginning to look askance at a tariff system which takes much and gives little by way of reciprocity. What they are now saying is that a boycott of American goods is the only means of bringing their big neighbour to book on the tariff question. The Pan-American Convention is regarded in the United States as a convenient and important forum for an annual exchange of views, with the Latin republics. That President Coolidge deemed this year’s congress at Havana as worthy of his personal presence and benediction is significant of the impression which the growth of hostile sentiment has created at Washington. Mr. Hughes’s “impassioned speech” adds emphasis thereto. It is an interesting and pregnant situation.