Argentina's "Mad" Foreign Policy
Argentina's "Mad" Foreign Policy The Role of "Hemisphere Solidarity and British-American Trade Rivalry By Felix J. Weil rtT\Hl August ». 1144, itimeof Th» Nmtton referred I te the "mad poiltie*...
...The Britiah feel that they should not be aaked to make further sacrifice* In the intereats of hemisphere solidarity, in tht cuccttt of which tchtmt, it might be added, the I'nittd Stattt hat tvory inttrett and tht Britith have nont...
...af New Terk...
...Efforta to item it, tuch at tat "atalerslent neutrality" of tht exchange control aad the official banks, hart been futile...
...But it it...
...odd items as lin•*ss, eggs, cheese snd the like...
...It aasM ast oaly be detrimental but courting suicide for thaw groups to "play ball" with the United Statea...
...What they hoped to be able to do was to slow it down and control it and thus put off the day when their supremacy would end...
...Failing thit, .and contidering the British attitude, the other way would be to "shut up," that it "to take it" and accept conditions as they are...
...To lahel tht preaotst Argentine f,wfBs»ent an "snad,- is, in any opinion, just ai "yasAussrirsns have sot the stage aad assigned the mI* for "western hemisphere solidarity," with the aaprevsl of all Lath* Asseries including Argentina...
...Per several' score of yea re Argentina was a "Britiah ceieay...
...To the ettantfctree, this migration of workers represents the loss of hundreds of thousands of agrarian votes...
...This tariff, incidentally, waa erroneoutly construed by many American writers as highly protecaeaietk, wheres in reality it definitely favon the importation of finished goods...
...According to official figures, their number hat risen from about 400,000 in 1»14 to about 600,000 is 193* and to over a million in 1943...
...Thi* would proves lure way of routing fascism and replacing it with a democracy sufficiently real to form a common basis for real inter-American friendship instead of a paper one...
...The landed aristocracy became increasingly aware that this cursed industrialisation could no longer he forestalled...
...To accomplish thia, thert wsa only one way: the replacement of democracy by t dictatorship...
...Are they "mad.'/^hsn, in remaining adamant...
...Officially, of course, they have had to go through the motions of recalling their Ambassador when Secretary Hull recalled the American Ambasaador...
...thit bt madneii tht Vftfcn/ ut Had better look to ourrpwn canity...
...But thia enthusiasm is spt to...
...In this she has muffed a chance to win Argentina away from fascism...
...Just at this time, the influential South American Journal of London came out with an editorial, in answer to tht articlt in Harptr't, defending and approving the Argentine Southern Bloc policy...
...Nor has the eastern tariff been effective in discouraging local manufacture...
...The present Argentine government and its backers, the e$tanci*ro$, have no illusions in this titustion...
...Argentina's itubborn opposition to tht I'nited Stattt hat filltd them with a delight which theg have token little pain* to conctal...
...She Import*, frem Argentina only tuch...
...WbEN Wlastoe CharchMI eakt "I do net totead te preside over the Hqakiatiea of the Britith Empire," he net only aaeant the deminieas aad colonies that are hold to England by tow, but also the aamereaa ceeatriee that have long been ha the British ectaitale ortot- One of these important Itoka ia Argentina...
...But stob then many L7m realised that HhUr kssew exactly what he was laiag harl Buuager, for iaetance...
...cool •fa rapidly with the reslizstion thst joining such ** organization implies giving up a good deal of ••Weignty and might involve the United States •taintt her will in a war against aggressors of memJl...
...At roe Afsttto eerrectly observed, "the chief tupaart ef the [Argeatint] regime . . . appaan to be pjatag the bueiaissmtn SSvd plantation owner...
...These economic facts ef life giv* leak aad bene* to the problems of the "good neighbor" aad "hemispheric aelidarity...
...She has not even mad* the simple gesture lifting tht meat embargo which would have made a tremendous impression on the tttanettrot as cattle breeders...
...Accordingly, "» aristocracy sees little inducement to play the United States game...
...She has consistently rtfuted to admit Argentine meet and under the watchW eye of the United States cattle interests it is Wfc-My unlikely that she will ever do so...
...Furthermore, it would mean implementing these economic mesturet with political moves, such as helping the democrstic oppotition both morally and materially, even by deliveries of arms and grants of money...
...AHheagk Britain has amen farced to sell meet of it* toveetaaeato to Argentina to raise cash fee the teste of war, the two cosmtries are atlll held by trade bemde...
...Deeds which might involve sacriClimbing on the American bandwagon may well **•¦ to them the loas of their European markets and • furthering of the dreaded industrialization...
...Weil, a aative ef Argentina, is new with the Inatitat* of Social Research at Celambia University...
...Its economic Ufa wsa beaad to Britain and its todwatrtal Ufe was heavily mortgaged to British toveetmaata...
...Half measures will not do...
...Should the United States deride te "pat ap...
...lattiftrialisatioa, which progressed before the war and Mated as a result of it, has already dealt the landed gentry a staggering blow...
...And no sooner had Secretary Hull delivered hit latest Meat against the Farrell government, intimating ttqpt would be taken to force Argentina into line, than the wellknown British periodical, Tht Eeonomiit, mad* it dear, at reported by Raymond Dsniell in the Ntw York Timt* of Augutt 4th, that Britain hat "no present intention of joining In any economic aanctiont againtt the country that it one of their main sources of supply of beef, lesther aad linteed oil, all vitally needed...
...The United States holds out no promise of economic advantage to them either now or in the postwar period...
...At a reault *h* has succeeded only In bewildering and baffling the Argentines but not in gaining her goal...
...In Principle, everybody naturally favors a world body insuring peace...
...They were concerned with reestablishing their prewar trade system: import of finished goods from those countries who bought their swat and agrarian products...
...In June 1943, the ettancierot installed a general at dictator, as their "strong man" who could be trusted tt champion their cause...
...This is s realistic attitude which apparently would not be too diststeful to certain "American businessmen engaged in foreign trfede" who, according to the New York Timt* of July 23, 1944, advise "a policy of friendly recognition of the [Argentine's] approach to us," and the sending down of "an unofficial, yet politically armed, mission of businessmen...
...to feck a complete rspproachment . . . and 'in a businesslike way,' talk over advantages to be gsined if Argentina were to take 'a few more steps' away from the Axit, this mission to be backed with the tacit understanding that any offers they might mske would be fulfilled...
...This would not be construed by the Latin-American peoples as a break of the American promise of nonintervention in the internal affairs of the hemisphere countries...
...Tht lliihth have been far mart attute...
...Now, not only art they lest to the Conservative Party but in the process of becoming citified they have become "con tsmmated" with opposition ideas...
...Industrial working conditions, though still inadequate, are higher than the atarvatk* level of the agrarian laborers, tenant-farmers and taererropptrs and are attracting rural workers inertastngiy...
...Argentina's "Mad" Foreign Policy The Role of "Hemisphere Solidarity and British-American Trade Rivalry By Felix J. Weil rtT\Hl August ». 1144, itimeof Th» Nmtton referred I te the "mad poiltie* of the present Argcatine '% gsveTasnent...
...adds: "The British feel that adoption of economic sanction* is an ineffectual way either of overturning the prttent regime or of winning the fritndthip and support of the Argentine people...
...Life for industrialisation is death for the largest estate...
...nations...
...It to ealy against this backdrop that the daily treat* can be reviewed Thia article by FeHz J. Weil ia a chapter from Aratmtimc Kiddle pnbiiahed this week by the Jeha Day Ce...
...This has caassd **SMidUrab4* eonsternation and to atosotttaly interpreted as shear madness...
...Thia towae description was apj_j m i itier bofore the war...
...Formerly tats* workers were marched to the polls by the titanewret to vote the Conservative ticket...
...Such s course would mean replaciag tke present unofficial baa act aalea to Argentina by an outright boycott which weald include stepping all perchaats af her good* by the Uaited Nations and tskiag measarea te exclude all black-listed coaceraa In Argeatlna from trading witk the Uaited Natieaa la the poatwar period...
...she must be ready to see thing* through...
...This was evidently intended to off set the too United-States dominated inter-American solidarity fnuit This tame month Chile, Paraguay and Bolivia, three prospective members of the Southern Economic Bloc, broke away from the hemisphere front by recognizing the Farrell regime in Argentina, to the great chagrin of the United States...
...Economically, local manufacture creates and requires a domestic market tOhich in the long run can bt provided only by large-scale homesteading...
...For further symptomatic evidence we have only to review some recent events...
...The Unted Statu has weakened htr every move by vacillating between the two...
...They know as well Ss we do that it it extremely unlikely that a policy of "put up" will be carried;'out, Hull's blasts notwithstanding...
...When this becomes clesr, many Amer"¦"s are, unfortunately, likely to revert to isolationist *i«wpoints...
...This promise hss si ways been understood to be a pledge to refrain from repeating what has occurred so often in the past when the United States aided snd encoursged resctlonary group* in disregarding the democratically expressed will of their people The Latin American masses would be the first to welcome such novel "intervention"—"democratic solldsrity"—in ousting a dictatorship...
...As a producer of agrarian produ.:j herself, the United States ia Argentina's compactor in these products on the world market...
...Many have joined laser anions...
...In March, 1944, several American periodicals, notably Harptr't, published alarmist articles on Argentina's attempt to create a Southern Economic Bloc under her leadership...
...Britain Is the great market far Argeatta* beef and agricuharal product* Argentina, ta turn, buys Britiak mdaatrUl geede...
...However, a glance at the last p'oreign Policy Report on Argentina shows that the British have found ways to let the Argentine government know that they appreciate the stand Argentina is taking against their old rival for Argentine markets, the United States...
...Mid so in hi* {Nek, HitUr J* We Fsef...
...Hag, ia the saiddse of thtngn, the sassse to be acting ta* tetsperastontal prista eonns refusing to plsy her rah...
...Argentine railways have been a traditiewal toveetmeet fee the British rtntitr aeekiag an uaeeraed income...
...There are two ways of dealing with the Argentine situation: either to "put up" or to "shut up...
...Every Latin American, that ' •wept the Argentine utvneierot whose opposition with the knowledge thst no words alone but ¦sds are required to live up to these general declara*¦* of solidarity...
...This tattilt the breaking up of the large estates since free, gtvermuent-owned lands suitable tor settlements are at longer available...
...Politically, industrialisation, under democratic eoneiuonc, also endangers the aupremacy of the landed gentry, the tttancitroa...
...W»8ariy, every Latin American is in favor of WMisphere solidarity...
...To leave no doubts on tht subject, Daniel...
...T ¦he ettancierot regard inter-American solidarity ¦fr* the tame way that most Americans regard a Postwar League of Nations "with teeth in it...
Vol. 27 • October 1944 • No. 43
