OUTRAGED BRAZIL.

Evening Star, Issue 24280, 22 August 1942, Page 4

OUTRAGED BRAZIL.

The six merchant ships whose sinking has enraged Brazil are only the latest instalment of such losses.' The first South American ship to be sunk by an Axis submarine, meeting her fate on February 15, was a Brazilian vessel, and attacks have been frequent since. When the second ship was sunk, only three days after the first, the Government withheld the news till after Carnival week for fear lest riots against Axis nationals should follow, as they did after similar outrages during the First World War. When two more vessels were sunk in close succession the Constitution was amended to empower the President to declare war or decree a state of emergency without a vote of Parliament, and the confiscation was ordered of up to 30 per cent of the funds of Axis subjects in Brazil as a guarantee of compensation for the ships destroyed. There were riots against Axis foreigners in Rio de Janeiro, and no one would have been surprised 'if a declaration of war had followed. The Government of President Vargas, however, which had broken off relations with tlio Axis Powers when America entered the war, preferred not to go so far. It was concluded that the Government feared the trouble which might be caused by its large Axis population. There are some 830,000 German-born Germans in Brazil, with perhaps 1,370,000 more of German de- • scent, about 3,000,000 Italians, and 200,000 Japanese. Most of them are in the southern State of Sao Paulo and neighbouring States. The Government did arrest some hundreds of Germans and Japanese suspected of subversive activities. took steps to strengthen its army, and was reported to be arming its merchant ships. More' vessels, nevertheless, wore sunk, and the Axis depredations have now reached a point when it seems unlikely that a declaration of war can be much longer delayed. Tt was the Germans’ submarine campaign which brought BrnzM into the Kaiser’s war—the only South American State to become a belligerent.