BRAZIL’S REVOLUTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16493, 7 March 1914, Page 10

BRAZIL’S REVOLUTION.

When Mr Theodore Roosevelt was travelling in Brasil a few months ago he wrote in- enthusiastic terms, cf the “ abundant signs of social and political well-being” he had observed in the South American republic. “Nowhere in any nation of the world,” he said, “has a more enlightened policy been pursued than that pursued by the statesmen who havo had the control of Brazilian affairs during the past fifteen or twenty years. The results are everywhere evident. One of the places in which they are most conspicuous is Rio de Janeiro itself.” It is rather unfortunate for Mr Roosevelt’s reputation as a prophet that Brazil should be in the throes of a revolution to-day, with martial law in operation in Rio do Janeiro. The last Brazilian revolution took place in 1889, when tho throne of tho Emperor Pedro 11. was overturned and tho republican government established. Since then the country has bofn developed rapidly, some £150,000,000 of British capital having helped in tho good work, and 25,000,000 Brazilians who occupy a territory larger than Australia havo seemed to the casual observer prosperous and fairly contented. But the habit of revolution is deeply rooted in the Latin-Americen character. Mattarings of a coming storm have been heard frequently during the last year or two and last month a sharp fall in Brazilian securities on the London market was thought to indicate some-

thing more than an unsatisfactory market for coffee. It will be remeni-b.-rcd that a year or two ago a naval mutiny of a grave character occurred at Rio do Janeiro, the two Brazilian Dreadnoughts becoming involved. According to reports in service circles, the Brazilian warships have had their stings drawn since that time by the removal of the breech-blocks of the important guns to a shoro station. The incident certainly shook public confidence in tho stability of the Government and tho cablegram from Rio de Janeiro published to-day suggests that a critical situation is now arising. The Government ought to be able to restore order, since it has a well-trained army and a sympathetic money market at its disposal, but an outbreak of revolution in a republic long regarded as a model of peaceful development is bound to attract a great deal of attention abroad. It will help the British investor to appreciate the solid Anglo-Saxon virtues. !