Evening star., 1943-12-12

Is almost over.
This is the way in which a veteran
observer characterizes the present status
of relations between Brazil and the
United States. Out of wartime part
nership has come a degree of collabora-
tion that mo one six years ago would
have dreamed possible.
Once President Vargas decided to CO.
operate with North America everything
else followed. Brazil freely granted ter
ritory for bases and airfields. Natal and
Recife have become vital points in the
patrol and transport system of the
United Nations Natal, with its constant
shuttle of planes to and from the far
corners of the earth, aStonlSheS the
visitor by its scope and size.
All this was done under wartime
urgency With Africa safe for the Allies
and the fifth column in South America
checkmated, the urgency is not nearly
so great A new phase in the relation
ship, not merely between Brazil and the
United States, but between North and
South America, is about to begin. The
llOIltyIllOOll ID llSttI ~ OVtl
For this reason, perhaps, certain signs
of stress and strain are evident that
might have been overlooked in the
immediate past. For one thing the
rivalry between United States agencies
a reflection of the rivalry that prevails
in Washington-is more in evidence.
The State Department is accused of
trying to curb all activity that is not
directly related to or supervised by the
department itself. This was the story
I was told at almost every stop in the
course of a 10,000-mile swing through
Brazil and Bolivia. Representatives OF
the department, being diplomats, are
less outspoken, but from them comes a
plain intimation that there are far too
many americans duplicating each
others work and spreading confusion.
Thousands of Americans.
The Brazilians are polite but they do
not conceol the doubts they feel about
the presence of so many Americans in
their country. They refer to the coming
of the North Americans as IAN INVASION
by friendly paratroopers," and they put
an ironic infection on the word friend
w." Here in Rio alone are several
thousand American civilians connected
with the United States Purchasing Com
mission, the Office of Co-ordinator Of
Inter-American Affairs, the FBI and
several other agencies.
Considering the expansion brought
about by the war; some jealous rivalry
was perhaps inevitable jefferson Caff-
rev, a career diplomat, came to Rio as
American Ambassador in 1887 when
there was apparently well-worked-out
plan to take Brazil into the Axis with
Vargas approval. The effects OF such a
move would, of course, have been in
calculable throughout South America. 1t
would have focused all the resentment
and hostility toward the COLOSSUS OF the
North" that had been famed by Nazi
propaganda. 1t might we'll have signaled
a major disaster.
Caffrey's associates give him credit for
averting this disaster, They say that he
persuaded Vargas against such move.
shrewdness of the short, stocky man who
governs Brazil Vargas had an extremely
difficult decision to make. The United
States seemed determined to retire into
a new isolationism. Germany was grow
Ing mightier every day. Brazil's mean
dering, undefended coastline and her vast
empty spaces were fairly an invitation
to inflltration and invasion. And, more
over, Vargas himself had come to power
with some of the trappingS of new
order" and accompanied by the growth
of the Integralistas, Fascist party with
Nazi connections.
Vargas Daughter Helped.
But the decision was made. Brazil did
not draw closer to the Axis. Influential
in that decision was Oswald Aranha,
who had been Vargas Ambassador to
Washington and was later to be his For
eign Minister Another hand weighing
in the Allied scale was that of Sonora
Alzira Peixoto, the Presidents daugh-
ter and secretary, who knows and likes
the United States.
At first Brazils role was passive, neu-
trail. Then came a personal plea from
President Roosevelt, conveyed through
the Embassy, for full cooperation. That
marked the beginning of the expansion.
American millions began to pour into
the country. Precious raw materials,