The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1928. THE NICARAGUAN PROBLEM.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 January 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1928. THE NICARAGUAN PROBLEM.

IK:king the nineteenth century there grew up in the Latin-Amei ican republic n well-established tradition, to the effect, remarks the Auckland “Star, that every .self-respecting country in entitled to at least one revolution every year. The principle was not always carried into practice quite literally, hut tin* history of Mexico during the past thirty years might serve, allowing for different conditions, as a chronicle of the political progress of many other republics 111 Central and South America, The political record of Nicaragua in this respect contains little that is remarkable or interesting hut the country and its affairs have attained, within the past few months, an exceptional notoriety through the intervention of the United States. It is by no means an

easy task to explain clearly what the internal condition of Nicaragua actually is, or what American troops are doing there. The country, is of course, badly governed, under a pretence of constitutional administration. The rebels assert, no doubt with truth, that the Government is inefficient and corrupt, and they profess to he lighting for the liberties of the people. On the other hand, the “de facto” government maintains that Sandino and Salgado, tlie revolutionary leaders, are simply brigands, and that in any ease the rebellion has been fomented and instigated from .Mexico, where President Colics makes no secret of his strongly radical sympathies. It was this alleged danger of an outburst of revolutionary Bolshevism in Central America that provided the American Government last year with a pretext for intervention. No doubt the danger to which all civilised countries are exposed by the spread of Bolshevism is real and menacing. But this in itself would hardly account for the concern that 'Washington has displayed over the fortunes of Nicaragua. It is clear that there must he some special motive beyond the natural desire for security and peace that has prompted the Americans to take a step which seems at first sight entirely inconsistent with their loudlyprofessed desire to confine themselves to their own political affairs. No doubt commercial and financial interests count for something, and there is much talk about possibilities of oil or rubber and loans from New York bankers. But the real ground for America’s intervention is undoubtedly the agreement made with .Nicaragua eleven years ago by which Washington virtually secured the concession of a new canal zone which, when the opportune times arrives, is to provide an alternative to Panama. There can lie no doubt about the importance of this concession to the American people. But the question that is exercising the minds of patriotic Americans just

now is whether their Government is justified, by the prospect of advantage to the United States, in interfering in the internal affairs of its neighbours, pnrtculnrly when such intervention practically means lending the aid of the American army and navy to ?rush a revolution that may, after ill, he the desperate struggle of denoeracy against tyranny. Some critics leclare that intervention means not mly infringement of the rights of the Nicaraguans, but a breach of the American Oonstitutjop, and the paei-

fie section Pf Congress is loud in its denunciation of this fresh outburst of •‘American Imperialism.” Air Coolidgo and his advisers will find sonic difficulty in persuading their own people and the world at large than any excuse yet put forward can justify thenarmed intervention in Nicaragua.