NAZIS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
Thk Japanese foreign Minister, Mr Matsuoka, has denied that in an interview given by him he “ flung a challenge ” at America. Perhaps the Japanese Prime Minister, Prince Xonoye, will explain or repudiate the remark attributed to him in another interview, to the effect that “ should the United States recognise the leadership of Japan, Germany, and Italy respectively in East Asia and Europe, they will logically recognise the United States leadership in the American continents.” This statement as it stands contains two implications, of which the first might be reckoned affronting and the second opposed to all experience. The implications arc that America should bo willing, in sympathy at least, to join the predatory society and that there is honour among thieves. Would Germany, if it were possible for her crimes in Europe to be condoned by the United States, actually and in practice admit that country’s commanding position in the Western world? Reports of German machinations in not a few of the South American States make it difficult to believe. The Nazis have played their game there with so much impudence for a number of years that it would be too much to expect them to stop it when the success of like schemes in Europe bad caused appetite to be increased with eating. German penetration of South America, it has been recalled, began in the last century with shopkeepers and craftsmen. Unlike their fellow-emigrants of that period in North America they clung to their language and customs, and of five million first, second, and third generations of Germans to-day, most arc as German as their forefathers. Three whole provinces of Brazil, and stretches of Uruguay, Peru, Chile, and Colombia arc
said to he so predominantly German that many of the natives speak the language.
Three years ago Ernst Wilhelm Bohlo, chief of the Nazi foreign general start', turned his attention to this material. Propagandists were sent to various German institutions and their enlistment in the Nazi cause was commenced. Berlin distributed subsidies to German schools, sent teachers and Nazi text books. Regional commanders were appointed, and soon Gormans who might naturally have been indifferent found that it was profitable for them to cultivate a political sense, and to direct
it as Nazism required. Latin-Ameriean military officers were given free trips to Germany, where the power and 'resources of the aspiring Reich were impressed on them ; news services, with the right German tinge, were supplied at the cheapest rates, and German-owned internal airways became agencies for propaganda. The equipment of these last, it is reported, was made specially adaptable to war service, and the fact was not unnoted by Americans that airports in North Brazil are within bomber distance of Panama. Furthermore, it has been reported that Germany has been almost giving away planes to Latin-American countries, making it possible for her to establish a “ fifth column ” in every flying field and hangar on the continent. Italians are even more numerous in South America, and have been following the same tactics. Horr Bohle is alleged to have adjured a gathering of Nazi propaganda agents in Berlin: “South America is our .most important frontier. It gives us vital supplies for our army, ft will give us colonies in the richest part ol the world. It will give us a bulwark against the United States, the plutodemocracy with which we will fight the greatest economic struggle of all time. It is your task to prepare that bulwark for the Fuhrer.”
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Evening Star, Issue 23701, 8 October 1940, Page 6
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582NAZIS IN SOUTH AMERICA. Evening Star, Issue 23701, 8 October 1940, Page 6
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