CHANCES IN CHILE.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1923, Page 4

CHANCES IN CHILE.

By Arthur Mills, who has just returned from a tour of the South American Republics). LONDON, May 17 Chile is the most delightful of the South American Republics'. The climate is perfect, the jioople are hospitable, living is reasonable, and there is no income tax.

Chileans and British have much in common. The Chileans have a strong sense of national spirit and take a pride in the country, which their neighbours know better than to ollend.

Towards the end of the war tilly Republics, with no seaboard and no troops, declared war on Germany, took to killing German traders and looting German stores. Chile remained neutral and became a refuge for Germans tiinji'ghoP! South America. She cm have gained nothing by giving sanctuary to a beaten nation. That she did so should command our resjieet. Bui .'lie might go a step farther. Chile to-day is flooded with German capital and German rivals to British trade.

AY hen disputes arise over nitrate deals and other matters British traders complain that the Chilean Government favours the German, who. living in that country to evade his war debt, has become a wealthy aild |niwerful member of the community. This fact has repeatedly been brought to tbe notice of both British and Chilean Governments, but nothing is done about

The social and commercial life of Chile is divided between \a I para iso and Santiago. A'aljiaraiso i ill bears traces of the terrible earthquake of I‘ltlii; it is linked with Santiago by a pretty strelcli of railway running lliruiigli lhe foothills of the Andes. \s a city Santiago is not so line as Rio de Janeiro, Monte \ iih'ii. or Buenos Aires. hut then.' are many splenilid new buildings springing up. During the summer mouths Chilean sovietv foregathers at Vina del Mar. a fashionable seaside resort near Yaljiaraiso. None el 1 lie lintels or house: is on the seal rout ami tile sea is so glacially cold that only the hardiest set foot in it.

Never! holes "Vina” is delight 1 id. Here British and Chilean soeiely intermingle in a wav lo lie found nowhere else ip Smufi America. The Chilean girl ol good family i> not only very l'reiiv Imi also meet emancipated. At

"Vina.” at the Gran Hotel, on dance llights n |- (|Hlte a eninillllll sigh! lo see cheery dinner parties of two el i hi ee ■ oiliig Englishmen and two or three Chilean girls -a stale of a (lairs inconceivable in ntlier jian-. of Sotilli America where Moorish and Inca (radii ions still regulate social life. Chile’s iirnsperiiy depends on her ocenngoing trade and she j s the paramoiini sea power of South America, il not in actual tonnage, then eerlainly ill naval armament and fighting efficiency. The Chilean is a. burn sailor, uhereas neither the Argentine mu the Pm/ilimi takes kindly to life sea. The real soul of Chile lies in her

illimitable mineral wealth ; in her copper mines, such as Chuqnieamatn, and the nitrate fields above Antofagasta. She is the second greatest copper-pro-ducing country in the world, but, curiously enough, there is no tax on copper and she depends for her prosperity on the sale of nitrate. As with cattle in Argentina, so with nitrate in Chile, after the war there was over-procluetion, followed by a “slump.” To-day Chile is recovering, her sales of nitrate for the current 12 months are most promising. There are fair openings on the nitrate fields in Northern Chile for young Englishmen of good education, hui no opening at all for British unskilled or semi-skilled labour. On ibc nitrate fields an Englishman after six or seven year- should be earning CIO a month, all found, with the jiossibility of rising to manager :tt Cl,ooo a year. The nitrate ccuniry is as bleak and '•ui)-|)are'.ied ns the locks of Aden, but the nights are cool and tlie life is healthy. Many a man has eur.-ed the •‘coast,” as they call the northern half of Chile, but the “coast. ' like the East, has a call of its own.