BIRTH OF A NATION

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 120, 25 May 1927, Page 21

BIRTH OF A NATION

ARGENTINA, 25TH MAY (By Humbert'o Bidone.) fThisc m,orßi. n 8. » Buenos Aires, capital city of the Argentine Bepublic, the guns salute the dawn. As the sun rises slowly irom the unruffled River Plate into an unnecked sky, the battery in the Plaza oe Mayo shakes the city from its slum-, bers. ■ It is the birthday of a nation, and the patriots rise to hoist the national flag, itself a symbol o£ the union of sun, sky, and silver river. And they intone this verse of our national gong;— May eternal be the laurel« i Plucked ;by heroes from the sky; Crowned by glory may' we live, .. Or swear we with glory to die. The "peaceful revolution" of 25th May, 1810, wag entirely" confined to Buenos Aires.- On 22nd May, Admiral Cisneros received a deputation from the citizens, and granted their request to be allowed to assemble publicly to discuss their grievances, and consider the situation in which the River Plate colonies stood under the i inept rule of a disorganised Spain. The first thing the citizens did was to call upon the Viceroy, Cisnerps, to vacate his office, and hand over control to a new Junta. Cisneros may have ■ been surprised, but he stepped down, and out in the Plaza Victoria (to-day it is the Plaza de Mayo)/ the crowd broke into wild shouts of triumph. •'•.■.■.:" Over the plains of the Argentine, where all races meet, where all languages are spoken, and: where all religions are professed, floats the blue and white flag.under whose folds is to be found a kindly home for the oppressed of the world. - " The; preamble of the Argentine Constitution says: "For our posterity and for all the people of the universe who may wish to dwell on Argentine soil." , . The Argentine has advanced as rapidly aB the chariot of. the sods, which, according to the mythological legend, in a single bound advanced to the whole extent of the visible horizon. The total trade between Great Britain and the Argentine in 1926 was £90,498,000. The Argentine holds the third place in the world in the economic interchange with Great Britain. . ~ To-day the guna re-echo the roar of the million-tongued assemblage that hailed the birth of the Argentine nation.