23-knot speed, and with a main armament of ten 14-inch and fourteen 6-inch guns!

Unluckily, all these more or less inchoate Republics have fretful Frontier Questions' with their neighbours; and, to make the matter still more absurd, these are often located in unexplored regions! As for communications, these are even yet rudimentary! My only way to pass from Lima in Peru to the Eastern capital of Iquitos on the Amazon, was to circumnavigate half the Continent -up to the coast of Ecuador and Colombia, through the Panama Canal, and thence down past the three Guianas and Brazil to Pará. Lastly, came 2500 miles of the Amazon to Iquitos-which is barely 700 miles from railhead on the Peruvian side, at the American copper mines of Cerro de Paseo.

I have hinted that Peru is the most interesting of all, just as its President is the ablest and most 'romantic' of figures among all the rulers of these undeveloped States. Any business man may be sure of a square deal with Don Augusto Leguia. The passion of this man's life is the regeneration of that vast land which old Humboldt used to liken to 'a beggar sitting on a bench of gold'! Leguia welcomes American, as well as British, capital. But he of all men is jealous for the sovereignty of Peru. He it was who revived Bolívar's wistful dream of a Latin League of Nations, with a view to safeguarding the interests of the Iberian Republics against all encroachment. The need of to-day,' Leguia proclaims to his brother Presidents-' an urgent and pressing need -is the drawing together for clear and concrete ends of the common weal of all the peoples of this Continent. For only so can we carry out that other ardent desire of our Liberator-" That this half of the New World may soon become the prime source of European prosperity."

I have little space in which to deal with the protests of statesmen and thinkers against the creep and pervasion of the influence of the United States, which is held to be inimical to the Iberian soul. Even the very word American' is objected to as connoting solely a citizen of the United States. Let me point out in passing that all official documents from the Washington Government invariably use the last-named term, rather than 'America.' An entire literature of warning has sprung

up in the three Latin tongues directed against 'El Tio Sam' and his 'Big Stick,' as seen in operation in Haiti, Santo Domingo, Cuba, Mexico, and Panama. Nearly thirty years ago Matias Romero, the Mexican Ambassador in Washington, gave new life to this sentiment by recalling, in the 'North American Review,' the fact that the United States withheld all moral and material aid from her sister nations of the South, who were struggling to free themselves from the dead hand of a decadent Spain.

As early as 1816, Henry Clay could see Big Business' in the revolting Colonies. 'We may safely trust,' the orator said, 'to the daring of our merchants. The precious metals are in South America, and will command the commodities needed there. Our navigation will thus be benefited, and our country will realise the mercantile profits.' It is precisely this spirit which, coupled with brusque manners and speech, is abhorrent to the Latin way of thought. Senhor Eduardo Prado of Brazil (his 'American Illusion' is another Pan-Latin classic in Portuguese) points out that Burke and Canning were the first champions of Iberian independence. In 1819 the U.S. Government refused to receive the new Consuls of Venezuela and Argentina. Prado also recalls the speeches of President Jackson which contained gross references to Brazil, and also the flurry and fuss of the U.S. Navy Department as early as 1830, in order to defend our interests among these unstable and incompetent Governments.' Garcia Godoy of Santo Domingo points out the gulfs of sentiment which yawn between the two civilisations. We should therefore work without ceasing to invigorate the national spirit and create an ambiente entirely hostile to Imperialistic Yankee influence in our life.' The Venezuelan, Fombona, piles up a long indictment; the Brazilian Academician, Madeiros de Albuquerque, returned to Rio to ridicule Wilson's pose in Paris, and assure his people that 'The United States will prove to be our Prussia of tomorrow.' As for the Latin-American press, its attitude is one of caution and disillusion, from the fiery newspapers of Cuba and Mexico City to the sane and powerful organs of Buenos Aires, like 'La Nación' and 'La Prensa.' The latter believes that the real motive of President

Coolidge's visit to the Pan-American Conference at Havana in 1928 is to block any possible extension of the League of Nations' activities in Latin-American affairs.

On the whole these Republics put faith in the United States until the conflict with Mexico in 1846, which every American historian now condemns. To General Grant this was indeed an 'unholy war'—' One of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.' It was none other than President Lincoln himself who led the fight in Congress against this onslaught upon a next-door neighbour, which was brought about through the interference of Minister Poinsett, and still more by his successor, Anthony Butler, who insisted upon the purchase of Texas, after Mexico had clearly declared that that huge State was not for sale. After the Mexican war, ex-President Bonillas of Honduras voiced the sentiment of Latin-America by declaring that thenceforth the Monroe Doctrine-'Far from being considered a guarantee of independence, will be regarded as a menace to our existence.'

Yet it remains a cardinal tenet of American policy; and its Imperial drift was upheld by Presidents Polk, Taylor, Pierce, and Buchanan. Pierce had a scheme to annex Yucatan, and said boldly: 'My policy will not be controlled by any timid forebodings of evil from this expansion. Indeed, our attitude as a nation and our position on the globe render the acquisition of certain territory not within our jurisdiction eminently important for our own protection.' To Bismarck, America's claim to sovereignty all over this Hemisphere was an 'international impertinence': the visit of the Kaiser's brother to 'Our Antarctic Colonies' (in Brazil) will also be remembered. Japan's opinion as to American claims is well known; so is that of Italy, which is another Power needing outlets for its large surplus population.

Some time ago the American Academy of Political and Social Science sought the opinions of eminent European jurists upon the Monroe Doctrine of Hands Off the Empty Continent!' Prof. Achille Loria, of the University of Turin, found its significance 'exclusively historical.' It was merely the product of a precarious era when the newly-born Republics were in real peril. But to-day (the Professor holds), when the Continent is

freed from every trace of Old-World sovereignty, 'the Monroe Doctrine is no more than a diplomatic pleonasm, or the useless repetition of an empty phrase.' Dr Loria then dealt with the question of European Loans to spendthrift States, of which Santo Domingo, Honduras, and Guatemala are sad examples. How were bankers to lend money if they had no means of compelling the repayment of principal and interest? We have seen that the United States is taking charge of these matters. The next consultant was Prof. A. Pillet, of the Faculty of Law in the University of Paris. He had (he owned) 'lost faith in the efficacy of abstract principles of International Law' (this, even before the Great War!). Prof. Pillet notes the curious fact that, although the Monroe Doctrine declared a policy of non-intervention, it has led the United States to assert her own right to intervene in a series of cases.' He upholds the Doctrine as a means of inculcating a sense of morality and responsibility in the weaker American States. He also considers that the Northern Power assumes the rôle of 'Master' as well as Protector; he would add to these that of 'Guarantor' in view of international obligations. Prof. Pillet deprecates the too frequent interposition of the United States, 'which will be interpreted as a tendency to assert hegemony in the American World. When applied beyond its normal limits, the Monroe Doctrine cannot be sustained, except by the superior physical power of the United States. And we cannot always be certain of possessing such superior force.'

These words were written in 1914. To-day we see America intent upon armaments as never before, with 'a riot of warships'-to use the phrase of Mr Herbert Hoover, who is now prime favourite in the coming Presidential campaign. And upon hearing in 1916 of 156 vessels costing 243,000,000l., Senators Hiram Johnson of California, Borah of Idaho, and Walsh of Montana promptly called for that 'naval holiday' which began with the Washington Conference-and broke down at Geneva with suave regrets and pious hopes for a better understanding in 1931. Meanwhile, the cementing of Empire proceeds apace from its eentre in Washington. Relations with Canada are satisfactory and commercial ties secure; there is no defence here on a frontier of

nearly four thousand miles. But East and West, from the British and Dutch West Indies to the Galapagos group belonging to Ecuador, 600 miles out in the Pacific, 'the strategic islands' have come under review.

Many of our own West Indies depend upon America markets at their door, just as Ireland looks to England as her best customer by reason of that 'geographical propinquity' which Mr Lloyd George impressed upon Mr De Valera's delegates before the Free State was set up. At one time Holland offered her islands for $2,000,000. Denmark sold the Virgins, after Germany's secret bid had put up the price to the United States. Even the 'Robinson Crusoe' group, which Chile owns some 400 miles out, are proposed as naval basesespecially if the Chileans were assured that our object in fortifying them was for their own protection.'

Naturally, all these loud calculations do not make for Pan-American harmony. It is equally certain that Britain's good name is held in so high an esteem by these Republics, that it may fairly be termed an Iberian tradition. 'On the word of an Englishman,' is a common vow of Spanish speech; in Brazil any plausible show of order is in Portuguese expressed as 'For the English to see!' These are significant phrases. Nor is it forgotten that Britain favoured Independence long before it was won. But President Adams declined all proposals to take a hand in it; so a generation of wasting strife was imposed upon Spain's oppressed colonies in consequence. The naval service of the Cochranes; the Irish, English, and Scottish volunteers of 1817; the O'Learys and O'Connells whom Bolívar decorated, with O'Higgins and Murphy and Lynch of the West Coastthese men will never be forgotten in the pageant of Iberian Freedom.

It would be a mistake to suppose that the British Government is not alive to the importance of the Empty Continent as a future market, and a source of raw materials. In 1918 we sent out a special Diplomatic and Commercial Mission under Sir Maurice de Bunsen, G.C.M.G., and ten Republics were visited. The report to the Department of Overseas Trade is a model of terse shrewdness, of which the most salient point is the creation of a special Intelligence Bureau to take full