3 NOVEMBER 1917, Page 15

Brazil, which severed relations with Germany in April last, declared

war upon her on Friday week. The President had drawn the attention of the Brazilian Congress to the fact that four Brazilian ships bad been sunk by German submarines and that this constituted a state of war. Congress with virtual unanimity authorized him to make reprisals. The crew of the German gunboat Eber,' lying in Bahia Harbour, blew her up rather than surrender. The German merchantmen that took refuge in Brazilian ports were seized last epring and ace.being used for the Allies. The German Government will doubtless try to make their own people believe that Brazilian hostility does not count. But Brazil was the South American State in which the Germans had worked hardest to acquire both commercial and political power. Her entry into the war beside the Allies puts an end to one of the most ambitions and promising of the German schemes to secure " a place in the sun."