GERMANY'S OPPORTUNITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 193, 4 January 1913, Page 4

GERMANY'S OPPORTUNITY.

An iutorcs'tiiiir .suggestion on the subject of Omn'any's ambition for Imperial expansion is made by tbo [lon. Seymour Orm>by-(;ore in the course of a letter to the London Spectator. Mr. Ormsby'forc Ibinks that (icrnnmy will not be content without a colonial empire worthy of a great nation, and Unit there exists one land in the western hemisphere where this natural .desire for growth could be gratified. It is perhaps the richest and worst-governed country in the world. Life in the local towns and provinces is never safe, fighting occurs so frequently that it attracts

little attention l , and the system of government is notoriously corrupt. The country which thus offers a Held for the civilising work of a great Power is Brazil. "Let Germany take Brazil," says Mr. Ormsby-Goro'. "She would finil her expansion, Brazil would become safe. civilised and enormously prosperous. But. someone interposes, 'The Monroe Doctrine?' My answer is. the Munroe Doctrine in modern times is (he biggest possible piece of '-bluff,' generally trotted out for electioneering purposes before a Presidential campaign. If the United States insist on the inviolability of the Monroe Doctrine, let them also undertake what it. entails, the security to 'human life and the peace of the States of Southern America, in most of which' human life is not respected, notably in Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil. If the United States wish to exercise a. kind of suzerainty over these States, tbev ought to police them. If they do not, then let someone else. There is no recognised standing for the Monroe Doctrine in international law." Already Brazil contains a considerable German population, especially in the. province of Sao Paulo, which is being rapidly developed by Gorman capital. Mr. Ormsby-Gorc suggests that the expendi: ture of a sum of secret service money in the proper quarters might make it possible for German influence to become paramount in Brazil without a shot being fired. But probably he has underestimated the difficulties of the scheme. The Brazilians almost certainly would fight for their republican institutions, and the United States would support thom.