Evening star., 1939-02-10
Aranha Pledges
Brazi|'s Alignment
With u. ). in War
Foreign Minister May
Discuss Use Of Our
Gold for His Nation
By BLAIR BOLLES.

UnderSecretary OF state sumner
Welles conferred at the Brazilian
Embassy today with Oswaldo
Aranha, foreign minister of Brazil,
who arrived in Washington yester-
day at the invitation of President
Roosevelt.
A scheduled conference with
Secretary of State Hull was post
poned because of Mr.. Hull's illness.
He has a cold and wished to con-
serve his energies during the day
for the annual diplomatic dinner
tonight.
DR.. Aranha brought to Washing
ton assurances that his country
would be aligned with the United
States in the event of IAN inter-
national civil war" His statement
was viewed as of great Importance.
since Brazil, the second largest
nation in the Americas, has been
the chief scene of operations on the
part of totalitarian powers in
terested in spreading their theology
in the new world
The conversation today opened
a long discussion between Mr.. Aran-
ha and his advisers and American
officials on all aspects of United
tates-Brazilian relations-trade, de-
fense, finance and foreign pene-
tration of Latin America. The Bra
lillian delegation, which, headed by
the foreign minister, reached WASH
ington late yesterday afternoon, will
be here at least week.
One question to be discussed was
whether the Roosevelt admlnlstra-
ton would be willing to utilize
small portion of its huge gold re-
serves to liquidate Brazil's frozen
credits and create exchange for free
trade nations. This would have the
effect of freezing out totalitarlan
nations engaging in barter and arti-
fetal trade deals. Out of the con-
versations may come sale OF
American warplanes to Brazil and
coordination of the military plans
of both nations.
The foreign minister, who until
a year ago was Brazil's Ambassador
in the United States. spoke at great
length and, considering his re-
sponsible position, with unusual
vigor on the question of Brazilian
United States unity and amlty at
a press conference at the Brazilian
Embassy Immediately after his ar
rival.
Two Traditional Friends"
He said:
This is a meeting of two t-adi-
tional friends who always have been
together in peace and in war. We
are conscious that we have to settle
every question and establish a real
cooperation between our countries.
Brazil will follow her traditional
continental policy Brazil will keep
awav from entanglements in Asia
or Europe"
The world right now is "practi-
cally" experiencing an "interna-
tional civil war" with ldeaG pltted
against ideas, Mr.. Aranha said, and
he intirHated his apprehension that
this war of ideas-expressed through
the dissemination of propaganda
might become a conflict Of arms.
Mr.. Aranha said that his govelA-
ment was committed to helping Bra
zilians remain faithful to the Bra
lillian idea, despite German pene-
tration, about which North America
has expressed its apprehension.
"More Propaganda Here"
There is more German propa-
ganda here than in Brazil the
Minister remarked. He pointed out
that the Brazilian government forced
the disbandment of organized for
eign political groups in Brazil. The
United States still has the Nazl
Bund. The Minister added that
while the Brazilian population OF
German ancestry is large, there are
only about $4,000 unnaturalized Ger
mans in his country.
The "old" Germans in Brazil, he
said, are all antiNazl. The new
Germans are divided on the Nazi
question, chiefly because of religious
differences So far as trade is con-
cerned, Mr.. Aranha said Brazil is
ION the best relations" with the to-
talitarian countries and will try to
improve those relations.
THE thing we resented" the Min
lister said, land the thing we will
fight is any effort by foreign powers
to build political strength in our
country"
Trade relations between Brazil
and totalitarian countries were so
good last year that-according to
Commerce Department figures for
the first eight months OF 1888
Germany was the leading trader
with Brazil. Mr.. Arhana complained
that the balance of trade in favor of
Brazil in his country's commerce
with the United States is steadily
getting less, declining to 10000 900
last year from the $60,000,000 of a
few years ago.
Those with Mr.. Aranha are Jaoa
Carlos MuniZ, Consul General; Sec
retary Sergio Lima Silva, Marcos de
Sousa Dantas of the Bank of Brazil,
and Luis Simones Lopes, efficiency
expert.
Alien Votes So Years
ST. CHARLES, Mo-, Feb. 10 R.-