MONROE DOCTRINE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 3, 5 January 1939, Page 9

MONROE DOCTRINE

IN THE MODERN WORLD

SWASTIKA IN SOUTH AMERICA

PROBLEMS FOR U.S.A.

(By "Senex.")

The delegates to a Pan-American Conference, assembling at Lima, Peru, were greeted by i. display of German, Italian, and Japanese flags which outnumbered those of the South American republics,-were spied on, subjected to pressure, and made the victims of censorship. This state of affairs serves to underline the existing conditions on the South American continent and the fears expressed by Senator Walsh, chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee of the United States Senate, that some foreign Power may obtain a footing in South America and become a menace to the security of the great northern republic.

At present the United States is torn by fears which range from a belief that military intervention by the Fascist Powers is possible .in South America to a feeling that the southern republics may go Fascist in their own way. The fear of military intervention apparently relates to some such circumstance as has come into being in Spain, with "volunteer" troops sent to the Western Hemisphere from Germany and Italy. It has been argued that it would be a simple matter for the United States to turn back such "volunteers" and deny transit to the war materials their transports would^ bring. But the whole matter is in-* .volved in international law and it subjects the famous Monroe Doctrine to a critical test for the first time. THE MONROE DOCTRINE. This doctrine, proclaimed by President Monroe ?f the instance of Canning 115 years ago, grew out of the feeling that it was hopeless for Spain to attempt to recover her South American ,colonies, and declared that the American continents were no longer to be considered subject for further colonisation bj European Powers, and that the United States would consider | any attempt by these Powers to extend their; political systems to the other j hemisphere as "dangerous to her peace j and safety."- Since tHat time the doc-, trine has been revised in two directions; the application to Europe has been extended to include any nonAmerican action encroaching upon the .political independence of American States in any way, and the doctrine has been stretched to cover the acquisition of the control of additional territory in the Western Hemisphere in any manner by any non-American Power. The point raised) by Senator Walsh, in fact, has been specifically covered by a Senate resolution of 1912 concerning Magdaleha Bay that "any harbour or other place in the American continents" likely to be a threat to the communications' of the United States could not pass to a non-Ameri-can Government withou the grave concern of the United States. This clearly defines the attitude of the Government of the United States towards any attempts by Germany, Italy, or Japan to exert political influence on the southern continent. And since there are large minorities of the peoples of these countries dwelling in some of the South American countries, and influential colonies even where the numerical strength is not large there has been reason for the United States to feel concern. ■ PROPAGANDA MAINTAINED. For Italy and Germany maintain an active propaganda in some countries, they devote much attention to the radio, present school-books written with the right bias, provide scholarships, and fill the hotels with travel literature. And latterly they have been intervening in politics. In Brazil, for instance, there was an attempt' to put pressure on President '■■ Vargas which he answered by building barracks in German centres and putting Nazis in gaol. In Peru, the scene of the Pan-Anierican conference, Italian influence has been greater than that of any other foreign country in recent years, a circumstance due to an aggressive banking policy and to the fact that the large, industrious and wealthy Italian colony is strongly Fascist in sympathy. Since 1925 the Italian capital invested in Peru has grown, it is estimated, from about £8,000,000 to £20,000,000. The Government is openly allied with the Banco Italiano and -in 1936 this financial institution held 77 per cent, of the Government's debts to.all trading banks. Germany holds second place as a source of import supplies, and German banks carry some of the Government debt. Why should Fascist nations seek to intervene in South America? For supplies, for raw materials, for credits which will buy elsewhere what they are unable to obtain from the countries already within their orbit. If a Spanish war provided them with metals conveniently situated, a Mexician war might provide them with oil which they urgently need. And in both cases they could pay for the imports with the goods they are equipping themselves best to produce—materials of war. FOR AGGRANDISEMENT. They might intervene, also, for their own aggrandisement, for to have the backing of any Government may prove very useful. A friendly Nicaragua, for instance, might prove a valuable ally in operations against carriage of that same Mexican oil if it were being sent to a foe in Europe in time of war. And for these reasons, and possibly others, the Fascist nations have been losing no chance of extending their influence on the South American cpntinent. They may have even greater changes in the near future because political disturbance on that continent is by no means rare. This, then, is the situation which the United States faces in its attempt to apply the Monroe Doctrine today. This is one of the reasons for the large-scale defence policy, especially naval and aerial, which has recently been proclaimed. And it must be confessed that the problem facing President ' Roosevelt and Mr. Cordell Hull is difficult. For even if the South American States may not be anxious to fall into the maw of Fascist influence, they may strongly object to being saved by the United States which is to them just one more foreign Power, but bigger, and with, its own ideas about national interests abroad. Fear of Fascism may be accompanied by suspicion of the "colossus of the north" and politics may result in playing off one against the other. For it must be recognised that in South America dictators and dictatorships are no new thing, and that they are fundamentally not antipathetic to the people of that continent. The chief thing the dictators of the West have to fear is that they may lose their jobs to the nominees of the dictators of the East.

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