Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-12-26
SOUTHERN REPUBLICS
NOT ALL IN HARMONY
Fail to Get Together on For
nation of Plan Looking to
Permanent Peace.
DIFFER WIDELY IN VIEWS

| correspondence ol me- ASsotihNtN iftSS'l
Santiago, Chile, Dec. l0.-The fail
ure of the proposed A, B. c. confer,
ence, which was to have met in Ric
de Janeiro November IS, has prompt
ed editorial comment throughout the
entire continent and the echo is YET
reverberating,
DR.. Lauro Muller, prime minister oil
the Brazilian cabinet, is said to have
invited the Chilean and Argentine
governments to send delegates to a
conference to be held at Rio de
Janeiro November IS, the twenty
seventh anniversary of the proclama,
ton of the republic of Brazil,
The exact purpose of the gathering
was not made public, but it was un'
derstood that DR.. Muller desired the
nations named to enter into a peace
pact binding each to submit to arbitra.
ton any dispute and in any event to
wait one year before resorting to
arms. The republic of Chile accepted
the invitation, as did the Argentine
tentatively. A change of government,
in the latter country came before the
date of the suggested meeting and the
new foreign minister strongly opposed
the plan. AS it was necessary for the
Argentine congress to ratify the pro-
posal, and as they failed to do so
Brazil was notified that its neighbor
would not participate Chile then
withdrew its acceptance.
Some Radicla Comment.
The most radical comment OIL the
affair was published a few days age
in Chilean journal of socialistic
Tendencies. Under the caption "Uru,
quay, the Serbia of South America,
the writer claimed that genera
South American war was as inevitable
as had been the great European con.
hict for years before the fare of Au.
gust, 1914.
Argentine will never agree to q
peace pact with its neighbors while
the matter of the La Platte boundary
line is in dispute" said the author
This line runs in mid-channel where
the river, between forty and at places
sixty miles wide, separates Uruguayar
from Argentinian territory. .
The Argentine government has
spent immense sums in dredging the
river from its mouth off the port Of
Montevideo to point opposite
Buenos Aires, distance of nearly 20t
miles, in order that large ocean steam.
ers might continue to dock in the
Argentinian metropolis A series OIL
islands once claimed by Uruguay are
now held on the other side to be
Argentinian because of the great ex'
penditures in improving the rivei
channel. This, together with bound
airy dispute, between Brazil and the
Argentine, has, according to the Chill.
can author, made the relations be.
tween the three countries somewhat
uncertain.
Says Secret Alliance.
The writer maintains that it is well
known in Chile that secret alliance
of both an offensive and defensive
character has for some time existed
between Uruguay and Brazil.
What will Chile's attitude be ir
the event of crisis?" he asks and pro
ceeds to answer by saying that un.
doubtedly his country would join the
Brazilian Uruguayan alliance. while
we have no boundary dispute with the
Argentine" he continues, I'VE still
have an unsettled question with Peru
Thirty-six years ago we won by con.
quest their rich territories of Tacns
and africa. Today we hold them still
by force of arms. We have not colon.
tized them. They are not yet Chilean.
lied. OF the 1900 inhabitants oil
Tacna, $500 are Bolivian, $500 Peru.
VANS and 5000 Chileans, but of these
latter 1900 form the military garrison
and the remaining 400 are civil EN-.
ployes or servants of the military. The
people of the districts call for a
plebiscite to determine to which gov.
eminent they belong and the Chilean
government dare not accede to their
request. Peru knows this and would
welcome war which would help it re.
gain its lost provinces. So in the final
lineup we shall find Argentina and
Peru pitted against Brazil, Chile and
Uruguay"
The views of this writer are in nc
way substantiated by public opinion
throughout South America. but there
is a widely expressed and almost
unanimous view that the A. B. C
means nothing and is an impractical
scheme not workable in either South
Central or North American relation,
ships. The smaller countries object
to the implied leadership of which the
plan carries for the Argentine, Brazil
and Chile and ask why the A. B. C.
does not as logically spell Argentine
Bolivia and Colombia. The scheme oil
the American State department fol-
the establishment of permanent peace
in the newspaper columns or chan.
in South America finds little welcome
celleries of the southern continent