The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-02
Germany and Brazil.


While the Berlin Government has
officially disclaimed any desire of ac-
curing territory in Brazil, it has made
no effort to check the expression Of such
desire at the German Colonial Con-
gress which has been sitting in Berlin.
That the eyes of Germans are fixed upon
that part of South America seems evil
dent, not only from the speeches made
by several conspicuous members Of that
body, but also from the cordial and al
most unanimous approval with which
the speeches were received by the Ger
man press.
DIR. JANNASCH the well-known geog-
rapher. strongly advocated the move
ment which aims to discourage Germans
from settling in the United States or in
Australia, for the reason that there they
are quickly absorbed in English-speak-
ing populations, and consequently, fail
to render any service to the German
programme of transmarine expansion.
He concurred with other members of the
congress in urging that measures should
be taken TO stimulate the outflow of Ger.
man emigrants to Brazil. He pointed
out that in the republic there were al
ready some two hundred thousand Ger
man colonists, mainly concentrated in
the extreme southwestern province of
Rio Grande do Sui, who have jealously
preserved their national characteristics
and their language. Their numbers,
he said, ought TO be increased not only
in order to safeguard them from absorp-
ton in the mass of their Portuguese
speaking neighbors, but also to provide
market for German manufactures
His hope, manifestly, was that. il con-
centrated in this Brazilian province,
the German emigrants might, in the end,
become numerous enough to set up
separate State, which would either de-
clare itself a German colony, or a re-
public in strict alliance with the Father
land.
There is nothing impracticable in the
scheme. For many years during the
first third Of the nineteenth century the
province of Rio Grande do Sui co6perated
with the Banda Oriental, as the State
now known as Uruguay was then called,
in resisting incorporation with the
Brazilian monarchy. Again, in the for
ties, it was the seat Of instruction, and,
quite recently, it was the focus of a
resolute rebellion against the repub-
lican Government established at Rio
de Janero. Nothing would be easier
than to organize to-day an uprising on
the part of the German-speaking and
Spanish-speaking inhabitants of Rio
Grande do Sui against the Portuguese
authorities, providing there were reason
able grounds for believing that the move
ment would be successful and, also, that
the outcome of it would be, not annexa-
ton to Germany, but the formation of
a self-governing commonwealth. owing
nothing to Germany except protection
against invasion. No intelligent German
emigrant desires to be followed to his
place of refuge beyond the seas by the
German bureaucrat or by the German
conscriptive system.
Experience has shown however, that
without substantial aid from Germany,
the province Of Rio Grande do Sui could
not successfully assert its independence
of the Rio de Janeiro Government. Both
military and naval aid would be required
The moment this fact is recognized, we
are confronted by the inquiry, Would
the Monroe Doctrine, as hitherto con-
strued by our State Department, permit
such aid to be forthcoming? Should
we feel constrained to tolerate the armed
Intervention of European monarchy in
the affairs of a Latin-American republic,
merely because the rebels on whose be-
half the intervention was ATTEMPTED
professed TO have in view only the crea-
ton of an independent commonwealth?
We never protested against the disso-
luton of the Central American Confed-
Grafton; nor against that of the old CO.
lombian Confederation. which included
Venezuela and Ecuador, as well as New
Granada; nor against the mutilation If
Peru by Chile; nor against the almost
complete effacement of Paraguay by
greedy neighbors. What is even more
to the point, we never protested against
the revolt of the Banda Oriental from
Brazil, and its assertion of independence.
There is no doubt that. il Germany
should use its army and navy for the
purpose of supporting an attempt to
dismember a Latin-Amercan republic,
no matter how the attempt might be