TURMOIL IN BRAZIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20690, 9 October 1930, Page 12

TURMOIL IN BRAZIL.

What, threatens to be a civil war of the first magnitude has broken out in Brazil. The outbreak is by no means unexpected. At the beginning of the year there was a circumstantial rumour that the Government of the Federal republic was concentrating troops in the southern State of Rio Grande, in anticipation of a serious rising at the time of the national elections in March. This particular rumour was officially denied, but there was no gainsaying that trouble was afoot in many parts of the republic. A few weeks before the currency of this rumour an attempt was made to assassinate the vice-president, and there were fatalities in the riots precipitated by this attempt. In the Chamber of Deputies, about the same time, there was fatal fighting. Soon afterwards there was something quite unprecedented in Brazil, the announcement of a party's political platform at an open-air mass meeting; previously the custom had been to present statements of policy at dinners attended almost solely by political leaders. These happenings discounted considerably the protest of the Federal Government that it had no expectation of a crisis and was therefore not mobilising the national forces. In the general condition of the republic there was then a great deal of disquiet. Fconomic trouble was brewing because of the precarious pass to which coffeegrowing, the staple industry, had come through excessive production; huge stocks, exceeding the whole world's annual demand, were in reserve, unable to find a market; unemployment was rife ; expenditure on public works was cut down; a general curtailment of credit was enforced; and financial panic was imminent. At the elections there was much disturbance, necessitating military suppression. By the middle of the year rebellion had taken an ugly form in the north, and since then it has been obviously gathering way in several States. The news published to-day, therefore, should not occasion surprise. There seems to be all too serious reason to believe that one of the bitterest civil wars in the history of South America has actually begun. Whether the stern measures at which the Brazilian Ambassador to the United States plainly hints can repress the rebellion appears to be extremely doubtful. The Federal Government may succeed in this, but the success will probably cost a terrible price in life and property.