Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-09
y. s. PRESTIGE STRAINED
In PAN-AMERICAN ROWS
Washington Diplomacy in Mexican
Tacna-Arican and Nicaraguan Dis
putes Is Frankly Criticized.

Great Britain and Italy. Is frankly
regarded in many Latin American
| countries as a "cloak" for some Amer
| lean purpose not yet disclosed. on
the whole, our friends in Central and
South America appear inclined 10 re-
gard our activities in Nicaragua as
obscure and not characterized by that
complete openness which, If we are
sincerely disinterested, they believe
we ought TO exhibit.
AS to the necessity to protect fu-
! ture American naval base on Fonseca
| Bay. or a future canal route through
Nicaraguan territory, Latin Americans
are saying that nobody, as yet,
threatens to menace those paper
rights 1t is recalled. moreover, that
the United States Navy has practically
abandoned the Fonseca Bay project,
and that there seems no intention, In
the mea surable future, to lay out an
other American canal in isthmian ter
ritory, either across Nicaragua or
elsewhere.
The United States policy of refusing
to recognize anything but duly con-
stituted Latin American government
is also seen by our Latin American
friends as opening up a wide vista, of
possibilities. We. here at Washing
ton. may have one conception of what
is a constitutional government In Cen
trail America, for instance. Central
Americans, on their part, may have
quite different conception of 1t.
Tacna-Arica Is Thorn.
There are thousand of Central
Americans at this moment who think
Sacasa, not Diaz, is the truly con
stitutionaI' president of Nicaragua,
might easily be able to establish his
right to rule at Managua. The United
states is not a signatory of the 1922
central American convention whereby
the states party to it agree among
themselves not to recognize revolu-
tionary government. But this country
sponsored the convention and is more
or less morally bound by it. How long
the policy of not recognizing a, "revolu-
tionary" government can be sustained
Is open, in Latin America opinion, to
grave question. 1t is often recalled
on the other side of the Rio Grande
and of the Isthmus of Panama that
this country itself sprang into exist
ence on the basis of revolutionary
government.
The Tacna-Arica affair has by no
means enhanced our prestige in the
Western Hemisphere. 1t Is conce0eO
on all hands. even by critics of the
way the United States handled the
ancient fracas, that we have been
actuated at all times by the sole
desire to be of service to the hemi
sphere, to the cause of peace every
where in it, and to Chile and Peru.
But our diplomacy, Latin Americans
are asserting. has not been as good
as our intentions. Having unprece-
dentedly assumed the dual role of ar
bitrator and enforcer of the arbitral
award. it is being emphasized that
the United States seems unwilling to
"see things through" The President
of the United States decreed that
there should be plebiscite under
American auspices. There was never
anything but an attempt to hold
plebiscite. and the attempt failed.
The United States then attempted
good Offices" and these, too, to date,
have proved abortive. The net re.
suit Is a growing conviction in Latin
America that we hesitate to carry out
the responsibilities we assumed as
arbiter. That is not spectacle which
the Latin American temperament re-
CARDS as prestige building for the
Colossus Of the North.
Copyright. 1927