SOUTH AMERICAN SYMPATHY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 66, 17 March 1916, Page 4

SOUTH AMERICAN SYMPATHY.

We were told the other day that a* soon as the decision of Portugal was known in Brazil, the news was. the signal for a public manifestation of sympathy on the part of Portugal's sister State in fay* our of the Allies. To-day it is stated that i Brazil will be compelled to requisition interned German ships. Brazil, though gome 500,000 Germans are settled in her Southern States (where they form many prosperous communities) has never been pro-German. A prominent Brazilian statesman declared, soon after the outbreak of the war: "To France we owe our culture, and to Great Britain our industries; our sympathies in the present conflict are with those Powers." What is known as " 0 Perigo Allemao " (the German Danger) has always been a frequent theme,, of discussion, in. tho Brazilian Press—the fear that the Teutons who already form a'oout half the population of the State of Santa Catharine (and are also very numerous in Rio Grande do Sul) may some day seek tf> proclaim a German sovereignty ovsr South Brazil, a part of the country which has an Italian climate, eminently suitable for European colonisation. In the Argentine Republic also, publi? opinion is very pronounced in favour of the Entente; so unpopular are the Teu-

tons in that country that a Buenos Aires shopkeeper with a German name found it expedient to advertise in the local Press that he was not of German but Swiss parentage. In that cosmopolitan city the principal European nations are each represented by several daily papers. The leading German daily of Buenos Aires, the " ArgentiniscUes biatt," acknowledges and bewails this unti-German sentiment in the Southern Republic, and attributes it to the fact that the cable lines are monopolised by Oic British, and consequently only trans-

Mit such news as is likely to influence public opinion in favour of the Entente. But the Argentines also well know that th#y. owe the development of their industries and trade mainly to British capital. All their great railways are British; one of these, the Great Southern, has a capital of about £50,000,000, nnd the principal tramway lines, harbour and gas works, and many other enterprises, owe their inception and development to British money. An incident which recently occurred clearly ehowed j this pro-British sentiment. An Argen- , tine steamer was stopped on the high eeas by a British cruiser and brought for examination ■ into the port of Monte Video. This wae the President Mitre, which flew the Argentine flag. It is true she was formerly of German ownership, but the transfer to the Argentine flag i had been made before the war. and there j was no question as to its bona fides. At j the safe time, it was maintained that her owners were still Germans, and what was more to the point, that she was i carrying a submarine in sections which ' was to be put together in some oiTt-o? j the-way spot, and then launched to' prey on British commerce in South American waters. Notwithstanding the protest of the shipowners, who suffered, great loss by the forced detention and unloading of the steamer, the matter was settled amicably and without the least hitch between the two Governments, after the British Minister in Buenos i Aires had stated his views on the case. The German Press of Argentina further complain that the British cruiser Vindictive was allowed to coal as frequently as she pleased in the porta of Buenos Aires, Monte de Video and Rio Janeiro, though, according to international law, a warship of a belligerent Power can only be allowed to renew her coal supply in neutral ports once in three months, and even then can only take on board enough to enable her to reach the nearest port of her nationality, which in this case would be the Falkland Islands. But even the fact that the Falkland Islands, a British colon}', are claimed by Argentina as hers by right, did not in any way influence in an. unfriendly .manner cither the Argentine Government or' the public opinion of their citizens. In fact, the enthusiastic reception Riven to British warships which have called at South American ports since the commencement of the war is a striking proof of local I sympathy with our cause.