Latin American Friendship
The elevation of the British Legations at Mexico City and Lima to the rank of Embassies, with the prospect of similar action being taken in one or two other Latin American capitals, is a sign of the recognition being rightly accorded, with a view not only to the purposes of war but to the longer and more beneficent purposes of peace, to that great and still developing continent. Few of the South or Central American Republics have hesitated about their choice between the Allies and the Axis Powers. Bolivia is still maintaining an equivocal attitude, and neither this country nor the United States has seen fit to recognise the new government recently established by a coup d'etat at La Paz. In Argentina on the other hand the situation is improving. Thanks largely to evidence provided by British agents President Ramirez' government appears to realise fully at last how active and extensive is the system or espionage which both Germany and Japan, with no doubt a little dubious assistance from Italy, have created "in Buenos Aires and other Argentine cities. With the realisation has come resolve. The Argentine Republic has broken relations not only with Germany but with all her satellites, including Vichy, and on Wednesday it was announced that a German general and a Japanese admiral, attaches at their respective countries' embassies, had been placed .under open arrest. These steps are decisive. Argentina has made her choice, and it is a choice as wise from her own point of view as it is satisfactory from the Allies'. Bolivia is now the only South American Republic from which the Allied Powers need withhold co-operation, and it will not be surprising if there too a retreat from isolation is sought and achieved.
Previous page
