Arizona republican., 1917-03-20
GERMANS SAID
To HAVE BASE
ON OLD ISLAND

-
THE naval engagement between the
British ship Amethyst and two German
raiders in the South Atlantic took place
near the island of Fernando de Moron
ha, off the south coast of Brazil, and
fairly contiguous to the largest segre-
cation of German population in that re-
public-where, it has been suspected,
there nave been maintained bases of
supplies for the German ships which
have operated so extensively against
shipping in those waters" states war
geography bulletin just issued by the
National Geographic Society from its
headquarters in Washington.
The Germanic element in Brazil is
numerous enough and energetic enough
to carry out such a policy if they choose
TO do so. They number at least mil
lion souls and they are practically linn
tied in residence to the four southern
most of the Brazilian maritime states
Rio Grande do Sui, Santa Catarina
Parana and Sac Paulo-where they
have thrust their national roots far in
to foreign soil without losing any Of
their Unborn characteristics Theodore
Roosevelt writing in 1914 of Sac Paulo
says, In this province | met for the
first time Germans born in the coun-
try who could speak only German
German colonization in Brazil has
| been going on since 1925, when the set
tlement of San Leopoldo in Rio Grande
do Sui was established. For ten years
the stream of Immigration continued
when it was interrupted by the sans
culotte revolt in. Southern Brazil. This
interruption lasted for nine years In
1S4S the flood of settlers was percep-
| tibly swollen by the families from
Schleswig -Holstein and the other parts
of Germany which were affected by the
revolt of the duchies against Denmark
No less than thirteen important Ger
man colonies were established in
Southern Brazil between 1913 and 1860
the earliest settlers being greatly aided
by generous grants of land from the
Brazilian government. which allotted
no less than ia acres to each immi-
grant Owing to speculative abuses
/ this privilege was largely reduced
but without noticeable effect upon the
movement-which was only checked by
the imperial edict of 1899 forbiddine
the further migrations OF Germans to
Brazil This edict remained III Vigor
until 1896, when, as Austin Harrison
terms him in the Pan Germanic Doc
trine, the great sea Emperor William
/ II, saw early and clearly into the flu
I ture, and taught his subjects to see
too.
Under this teaching, the Germanic
| flood swept in larger volume into Bra
I'll and now has spread over territory
approximately as large as that of the
American states of Florida. Georgia.
Alabama, South Carolina, North Car
oline, Virginia, West Virginia and
Tennessee. Fully quarter of a mil
/ lion Germans are 10 be found in the
state of Rio Gral do Sil, where, in
the cities. they have taken a strong
hold upon the activities of the country
and have practically absorbed COM
mercial and industrial enterprise. In
! Port Allegro, the capital of the state,
three German publications indicate and
expound the Germanic doctrine.
In Santa Catarina, the next state
north. conditions are analogous, Ger
man customs and the German idiom
prevail and in many towns one may al
most imagine himself in the Father
land The Gerinanic element here was
strong enough some years ago TO elect
a German governor; and with the ex-
ception of the officers of the federal
court, the office holders are almost en-
tlrely German. The anomaly of Braz-
ilian governmental reports written by
Germans is by no means unusual The
German colony in this state owes no
little of its strength TO the fact that
here, for some time, was the residence
of the Prince de Joinville of Sake
Coburg -Gotha who married a daugh-
ter of Dom Pedro, the first emperor of
Brazil; and the city Of Joinville, Ger
man to the marrow, is a monument of
His Royal Highness' efforts to form a
nucleus for German immigration
The lands to which the Germans
have taken title in South Brazil now
gives them an area OF holdings OF
II, 534 square miles, an extent equal
that of Alsace-Lorraine and SaXony
together The aim of the Metropol-
tan and Hanseatic Colonization COM
panies at home has been to defect the
current of German emigration from
the United States to Brazil and to have
the Brazilian colonists retain their
German allegiance. The success of
the plan is attested by Konigsburg
who i'll his work on Rio Grande do Sui
says, These colonies have built state
within a state. OF German customs
very little has been lost; also, the Ger
man dialect with its native idiom. is
handed down from generation to gen
Grafton. Portuguese is little spoken,
and even then the Germans use it
j with great difficulty The school
| teachers of the colonies are subsidized
German pastors.
Through their possessions of land.
the Germans in Brazil control one
half Of the worlds supply of coffee.
and the Germanzation of the people
is further carried out through the COM
/ pulsion laid upon the army of EN-
/ ployeS and servants to learn the Ger
/ man language rather than to oblige
/ the alien to gain the native tongue.
I The ideals and ties of the immigrants.
/ says Frederic William Vile in the
/ Eclectic Magazine, are essentially and
| ineradicably German 1t is Vile also
who declares that the GermaniZation
| of Brazil is no twentieth century pro-
| ject. 1t has been in progress for more
4 than seventy years, although agrees
sively prosecuted only during the past
/ decade (writing in 1900 coincident
with the rise of the rampant expansion
movement known as Pan Germansm
ITO that movement, more than to
any other fostered by the present
! Kaiser is due the rapid DEVELOPMENT
| of the German fleet, which looked for
ward not alone to der tag" but also to
further usefulness in defending the en-
pire's commercial outpOsts in the land
of the future as almost every German
writer has styled South America: and
it is significant that Professor Won
sSchulze- Gasvernitz, writing in Die Ma
ton as long ago as March, 1898, said
The more Germany is condemned
| to an attitude of passive resistance to-
wards the United States, the more
emphatically must she defend her in
terests in Central and South America
where she today occupies an authori-
tative position. Now. in matters OF