Evening star., 1939-04-14
per cent curtailment Of American

sales to her.
The border dispute between Ecua-
dor and Peru is still going on, the
meeting Of their special representa-
tives at Washington having failed.
Nearer us, the newspapers Of Santo
Domingo continue to fan the smol-
dering hates marking that coun-
try's relations with its neighbor,
Haiti. which eliminated not so long
ago in the wholesale shooting and
hacking to pieces of some 5000
Haitians by Dominican soldiery.
Finally, the continental defense"
plan advocated by President Roose-
velt, which in effect throws a naval
and air Gordon around the three
Americas, continues to meet with
heckling from publications and
speakers in various Latin American
countries supposed to be defended
by the plan against overseas ag-
gression"-the United States, these
voices say, also is potential ag-
gressor.
Strictly HothOuse Product.
Pan-Americanism. it has been
clearly demonstrated year after year
for decades, is strictly a hothouse
product. It has no roots In q COM
munity Of race. tongue, religion,
custom or interests. Southern
South America Is more of a stranger
to Colombia, Venezuela, the Carib-
bean Isles, Central America and
Mexico than to Bulgaria or Den
mark. Rivalries and jealousies are
as alive today as they have always
been-this was shown In an obvious
manner at the Eighth Pan -Ameri-
can Conference, held at Lima, Peru,
last December. when the Argen-
tines disrupted the show and left
the American delegation, headed by
Secretary Of State Cordell Hull,
holding the bag.
These unfriendly feelings toward
the United States would probably
nave reached an unpleasant degree
had 1t not been for the German
Nazis. They contrived, through a
fantastic plot to annex Patagonia.
uncovered recently in Buenos Aires.
to ALLEVIATE Argentina, where angry
voices are now rising against them;
and, through forcing German resi-
dents IN Brazil to send their chill
dren to the fatherland for schooling
to create still another source of en-
nifty for themselves. The Nazis'
loss, IN these cases, is Americas
gain.
The Mexican thorn in the side
OF good neighborliness, as repre-
sented by her appropriation poll
cies, can be dismissed as not funda-
mentally affecting her relations with
the United States and as prompted
mostly by President Lazaro Car
denas' purely internal economic pro-
gram. In other words, the expro-
priations should not be considered
as arising from antagonism toward
the United States, but from needs
rooted in Mexican domestic politics.
Declarations made by President
Cardenas and other Mexican off,
cials and politicians have left an
opening that could eventually lead
to a settlement, although at present
the matter is still in the annoyance
stage.
Meat Argentine Problem.
The Argentine situation is another
matter. The current official ami
mostly against the United States,
although carefully wrapped in dip
lomatic expressions of courtesy, can
be traced to the meat question.
Existing American sanitary regula-
tions prohibit the entry of meat
from countries affected by hoof-
and-mouth disease, and that bars
the Argentine product. Argentina
strenuously denies the existence of
that plague in her territory, or
asserts that where it exists it is
under strict control, and points to