Evening star., 1935-03-10

~ San Salvador government t
4 a which was not the result Of
violence, but the expression
of popular votes.
What should prove even more sig
nificant than this evidence # gov
ernmental stability to readers in this
country is the fact that the new
regime is headed by the same man
whom the United States refused to
recognize during two whole years
when he. as legally-elected Vice Pres
ident, was completing the term of for
mer President Araujo.
OF course, the experience is not un-
known to the men in charge of inter-
American relations at the State De-
partment. Many times in the past
they have denied recognition to pop
ular governments, and even supported
unpopular minorities in the opposi-
ton, only to be contradicted in the
end by the verdict-freely expressed
at the polls-of the very masses
whose judgment they had misrepre-
Sented. The case of Nicaragua is
typical. In two consecutive presiden-
tial elections, supervised by officials
of the United States, the two Liberals
who had been antagonized by Wash
ington, even with armed forces, while
they were trying to show the world
that the Conservatives had usurped
power against the will of the people
Of Nicaragua, Moncada and Sacasa,
were successfully elected to the presi-
dency by large majorities. The case
of Cuba, where little over a year
ago the State Department refused to
recognize Grau San Martin, alleging
he lacked popular support, and even
helped his overthrow, and where Grau
San Martin is now the strongest presi-
Dental aspirant, is still in the lime
light.
Shows Peril in Policy.
Nevertheless, even though the ex-
perience with respect to FL Salvador
is not new, it emphasizes once more
the dangers involved in allowing the
State Department to pass upon the
legitimacy and the strength of Latin
American governments and to deter
mine which one is popular and which
is not.
Gen. Maximihano Hernandez Mar
tineZ, the new chief executive OF Ell
Salvador, had a difficult time con-
vincing the State Department that his
previous tenure of the presidency.
having succeeded to that Office as the
elected Vice President in the absence
of the incumbent, was either consti-
tutional or popular. More than two
years elapsed before the United States
agreed to recognize the government OF
Gen. Martinez.
To justify its action, the State
Department, besides stressing the
"unpopularity" of the Martinez re-
gime, availed itself of treaty tech
nicality which not only did not bind
the United States, but was inap-
plicable to the case. The experts at
the State Department argued that
the United States had promised to
follow the policy laid down by the
Central American treaties Of 1875
to which they were not a party
stipulating that no person who had
taken part in a successful revolu-
ton, or who had held cabinet port
folio in a government overthroWn
by force, could be extended recogn1-
ton as the head Of new regime.
They claimed that Gen. Martinez,
as minister of war Of the ArauJo
government, which he succeeded,
could not be recognized.
Martinez Not Revolutionary.
Besides the fact that this promise
had not been strictly adhered to in
the past, there were several reasons
why the rule, If it was such, did
not apply to the case of the Martinez
regime.
In the first place the Martinez gov
ernment was not q revolutionary one.
It had been established In accordance