South America and the War

uit of trade in peaceful rivalry with others, but a sustained effort to defeat and oust rivals and reduce to economic subjugation the lands penetrated. By plungin

e war this weapon was not wielded with thorough decision, and Germans beyond the Atlantic were able to carry on considerable European trade. But today the German m

ay to circumvent the barrier which now cuts off those countries from Germany. Present risks and losses are viewed as part of the inevitable waste of war, as an outlay deliberately incurred in the all-important task of holding open the gate through which, upon the conclusion of peace, the fruits of German industry are at once to pour in an irresis

, but in fact shipped by a German firm at Santos for the parent house in Hamburg. Two months later, it was stated in court that nearly ￡400,000 worth of wool, shipped from Buenos Aires to the Swedish Army Administration at Gothenburg, had been seized by the British as being in fact destined for Leipzig. At the same time the Court condemned a number of manufactured rubber articles w

g the goods to Germany; to set up bogus companies for the same purpose; to use false names, or names of persons having no genuine interest in the consignment, and to manufacture false documents in order to give the appearance of neu

utrals, follows similar lines. German goods, falsely labelled and described as Swiss or Dut

cealed in rolls of newspapers, and how thin slabs of rubber were sent by post as photographs, also how quantities of jewellery have been despatched from Germany for South America in

one phase of the war and as evidence of the efficacy of Sea Power, these devices merit practical attention in view of proposals to fasten economic fetters upon Germany by the terms of peace, and in view of the odium which may tell against German commerce for years to come. German business men are preparing to meet these difficulties by continuing the method of exporting through neutral agents, and are proposing

und to be acting as agent or cloak for a German trader, he finds himself pilloried on the Black List beside the German. There are obvious ways of evasion. The name of a clerk or door-keeper or a lady type-writer may appear as consignee. A varied ingenuity has to be met by constant watchfulness, and the list is regularly altered and kept up to date. The Black List has been much criticised for omissions, which are sometimes due to motives of expediency. But the bitter complaints about its injustice are unsolicited testimony to its efficacy. A striking example of its working was manifested in September 1917. After the outbreak of war, such of the Chilian nitrate works as were owned by Germans were unable to sell their nitrate or even to obtain jute bags, the supply of which is in British control. The unsold stocks went on accumulating, until one by one the German nitrate works were compelled to close down. Long negotiations between Santiago and Berlin found at last a remedy for this waste. It was agreed tha

ivers. All contracts for purchase of coffee or other Brazilian products by Germans are null and void; and in cases where payments had been made by the German purchasers, all such payments must be handed over to the official receivers. The United State

s in a year or two of trade. This has been done by supplying to German black-listed firms goods imported direct from Manchester and Bradford. Through the close co-operation of the German bank with German trade, these Syrians and Armenians are enabled, by the Germans standing behind them, to pay c

difficulties to contend with. So far as he can, he sells from accumulated stocks of German goods, for the German importing houses before the war had gathered great stocks, especially in Chile. Where this resource fails, he repairs his stock by buying

n. The resources and confidence of the German traders are surprising. They have bought great quantities of wool in the River Plate-not so much indeed as is generally supposed; for German emissaries, in order to force up the price of wool to the Allies, have methodically made specious but fictitious offers of high prices to sheep-farmers all over the Argentine Republic. Yet, even so, German traders hold large quantities both of wool and of grain. These have been purchased partly for sel

therland may seem less attractive than investments in those Latin-American lands which look forward to rapidly expanding prosperity after the war. Accordingly, the German merchant is not only buying raw materials; he is also taking a share in the movement of home manufactures which now offers peculiar opportunities to foreign enterprise. Moreover, German firms in Buenos Aires have invested largely in short loans to the Argentine Governmen

efforts and aspirations are best illustrated by a recent utterance from the Hamburg branch of the League for Germanism abroad:-"We should like to insist that South America, the main field of our activity for many years past, constitutes a great sphere. Wide areas, with great possibilities of development, but little cultivated hitherto, are waiti

apon which demands special mention, namely the

a special Ibero-American service proves the prominence given to the work in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking lands. The last words obviously include the Peninsula as well as Latin America. Nor can the propaganda carried on in Spain be dissociated from that in Spanish America. "Spain is the way to South America," writes a Spaniard

rmans hold up a picture of German sagacity, system, thoroughness, efficiency. They desire to impress as well as to persuade. They know the effect produced by t

, in order that the Porte?o, as he walked the street or travelled by train or tramway, might have the German case daily and forcibly presented to him. Throughout Latin America, a dozen or more of newspapers have been thus founded for propaganda purposes, some of them illustrated by effective cartoons. The strangest examples of this journalistic campaign are two Turkish newspapers, La Bandera Otomana

sta de la Exportación Alemana is a most effective organ for German business, exhibiting side by side, in pictures and letter-press, triumphs in the field and triumphs of industry. The monthly Mensajero de Ultramar and the weekly Heraldo de Hamburgo have b

ropaganda written by a Latin-American soldier, Se?or Guerrero, who was, until recently, Peruvian military attaché at Berlin. But perhaps the most effective of these war periodicals is La Gran Guerra en cuadros, which presents, in a series of pictures, the war as meant to be seen by neutral eyes. All these periodicals attribute economic blunders and financial errors or weakness to the Allies, sometimes making adroit use of British or French self-criticisms: on the other han

t inundation of fly-leaves, photographs, pamphlets, books and miscellaneous war literature, preach

ted submarine warfare and the barring of zones to navigation have drawn Brazil, by successive steps, into active belligerency, and have done much to bring about rupture of relations and declarations of war by other Latin-American republics. Yet it would be a mistake to conclude that German propaganda has entirely failed. The Germans certainly think it worth while to continue it. The pavements of Buenos Aires

everal millions, and cause damage to her enemies to the same amount. As the situation becomes more critical for Germany, her propaganda redoubles in intensity. "Public opinion," says Napoleon, "is a force invisible, mysterious, irresistibl

of German news supply: and official steps are now being taken in Germany to consolidate and extend such a system, in order to provide a permanent support of German influence in the future. The present aim of her propag