THE AMERICAS: Arms and the Man

Several things happened last week to make diplomats wonder how long it would be before the policy of Pan-American solidarity got its first real test. From Barranquilla, Colombia, where she had been anchored since the war began, sailed the German freighter Helgoland without the formality of clearance papers. Aboard were six German aviators and 14 mechanics of the defunct Scadta Airline. Colombian Army airplanes took to the skies above the Caribbean, located the Helgoland plowing eastward in the direction of Martinique, reported her position to a U. S. neutrality patrol squadron steaming southward under sealed orders.

In Washington the State Department waited for a reply from Marshal Henri Philippe Petain to what was virtually a polite ultimatum: if France accepted Adolf Hitler’s invitation to “collaborate” with Germany (see p. 31), the U. S.

would seize French possessions in the Western Hemisphere under the provisions of the Act of Havana. The Act of Havana, which has already been ratified by the necessary two-thirds of the 21 American republics, empowers the U. S. (or any other of the 21) to seize non-American territory in the Hemisphere which is threatened with change of sovereignty.

After several days’ silence, Secretary of State Cordell Hull let it be known that U. S. naval vessels and patrol plane were engaging in “scheduled exercises” near Martinique (see p. 17). Soon afterward he got a reassuring answer from Petain. At Martinique are some no U. S.-made warplanes, aboard the French aircraft carrier Beam. Besides the eight destroyers of the U. S. patrol flotilla, several cruisers of the recently reorganized Atlantic Squadron are on a training cruise to the Guantanamo Naval Station in Cuba. At San Juan, Puerto Rico, are 12,000 officers and men of the Navy Air Corps. If the problem of Martinique had to be settled, the U. S. was well prepared.

The possibility of Germany’s getting a toe hold on the Western Hemisphere by way of French or Dutch possessions is the most pressing part of the problem of Hemisphere defense. The U. S. alone has the strength to deal with it now. But eventually a larger, more remote spot in the Hemisphere may have to be defended —if not from direct invasion, from a political coup which would put friends of Germany in power—and the U. S. alone cannot deal with that. Last week the military and naval establishments of Latin America, as well as of the U. S., were undergoing examination preparatory to large-scale renovation.

From New York aboard the S.S. Argentina sailed the military chiefs of the two most powerful Latin American countries: General Pedro Aurelio de Goes Monteiro of Brazil and General Guillermo Mohr of Argentina. With them was the returning Argentine aeronautical purchasing commission headed by Major Hector F.

Grisolia. During October U. S. Army Chief of Staff George Catlett Marshall had entertained two batches of Latin-American military missions, taken them on tours of arsenals and munitions plants, shown them U. S. equipment at work or in blueprints, endeavored to impress them with U. S.

strength-in-the-making. More than half the $500,000,000 recently added to the Export-Import Bank’s kitty to help Latin America economically will be lent for the purchase of arms (see p. 65), for the equipment of most Latin-American armies and navies is obsolete.

Arms to the South. Until last year the equipment of most of these countries con sisted of old U. S. Remingtons and ancient German Mausers for infantry, carbines and lances for cavalry, 1895 Krupp field-artillery pieces. Last year 19 of the 20 Latin-American republics spent an average of 25% of all Government expenditures on defense. Latin America maintains a peacetime strength of about 350,000 men. War strength is calculated at 1,800,000. With a total population of 125,000,000, Latin America can muster a potential man power of 12,000,000. Fifteen of the 20 countries have air forces. The aggregate Latin-American navy consists of five battleships, six cruisers, 32 destroyers, 20 submarines, a scattering of gunboats, minelayers, river-patrol boats and coastguard cutters. But only Argentina, Brazil and Chile can patrol their own shores. . Closest Latin-American country to the U. S. is Mexico, whose west-coast ports and Tampico on the Gulf are possible spots of invasion. Its first line of defense is the U. S. Navy, for Mexico has only six escort vessels, ten coast-guard gunboats and three patrol vessels. Once landed, a strong hostile force would have only the difficulties of the terrain and a doubtful Army between it and the U. S. border. The Mexican Army has a peacetime strength of 56,000, which can be increased to 150,000 in war. It also has 400 generals (as a legacy from frequent revolutions), ranked by General Jesus Augustin Castro, who fought under Carranza and succeeded President-Elect Manuel Avila Camacho as Minister of National Defense. The Mexican Air Force has 90 planes, 700 men. Potential man power in Mexico runs as high as 1,500,000. The Artillery uses foreign pieces, mostly obsolete, but Mexico makes its own rifles (Mosquetons) and machine guns (Mendozas). The Army has one tank company (six tanks), one motorized company, one motorized anti-aircraft battery.

South of Mexico is “the most powerful military establishment in Central America” (excluding Mexico): Guatemala’s Army of 5,967, plus a tiny, French-trained Air Force. President Jorge Ubico has said he could put 70,000 men in the field in a pinch. Below Guatemala is El Salvador with a volunteer professional Army of 1,855, an eight-plane Air Force. Honduras has an Army of about 2,000, an Air Force of 19 planes, with an aviation school under

Major Malcolm Stewart, U. S. A. Nicaragua’s Army numbers 3,538, with 4,000 reserves. The U. S. has a military adviser there. Nicaragua also has a tiny Air Force and a handful of naval patrol boats (largest, 37 tons). Costa Rica has a standing Army of 339 men, Panama none at all.

Caribbean Outposts. Rimming the Caribbean on the north are Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Cuba has a well-trained, well-fed, well-housed, well-equipped Army of 8,000, plus 6,000 Rural Guardsmen and 48,000 reserves. Cuba has also a Navy of 2,000 men, manning two escort ships, five gunboats, an armed transport and six coast-guard ships. Air Force: 116 men, 16 planes. The Dominican Republic’s Army, trained by the U. S. Army and Marines, numbers 3,300 men; its Navy consists of four coastal patrol boats and a transport. Haiti has an armed constabulary (Garde d’Haiti) of 2,494 men with U. S. advisers. She has two coastal patrol ships and no Air Force.

Venezuela, at the southeastern edge of the Caribbean, has a peacetime Army of 6,000, an Air Force of some 30 planes, a Navy of five little gunboats. Colombia’s Army numbers 16,000 men, with 400,000 in reserve. She has an Air Force of 90 planes. The Colombian Navy was reorganized in 1934 by retired British officers, now is advised by a U. S. mission, as is the Army. The Navy consists of two new destroyers, three gunboats, three coast-patrol vessels, twelve river gunboats, two transports. Not on the Caribbean, but close enough to the Panama Canal to be important, is Ecuador, with a small Army of 7,500, a potential war strength of 48,000. An Italian military mission, which had been instructing the Ecuadorian Army for 15 years, was sent home after Italy entered the war last summer. The U. S. now has an aviation mission there, as well as a naval mission to instruct 400 men how to operate the training ship Presidente Alfaro, which was bought in the U. S. in 1935.

Out of the Orbit. As far south as Ecuador, Hemisphere defense rests chiefly on U. S. shoulders, since both the Caribbean and the Panama Canal are vital to the defense of the continental U. S. Below Ecuador lie countries which have hitherto been out of the active U. S. defense orbit. Peru has an Army of 12,000 men, about 8,000 police and civil guards. The Army was trained by German General Wilhelm Faupel, is highly efficient. The Peruvian Air Force, Italian-trained, has some 80 ships, in poor condition. The Navy has a personnel of 2,500 men aboard two gunboats, two destroyers, four submarines and some smaller vessels. There are U. S. aviation missions in Peru, but most of the Navy’s planes are obsolete.

Bolivia has an Army of 5,000, which can be pieced out to 70,000 in wartime. Its Air Force is negligible (20 planes), its Navy nonexistent, since Bolivia has no seacoast. Paraguay’s Army contains only 3,000 men, but crack veterans of the Chaco and conscripts can raise it to 97,000. The Air Force and Navy are negligible. Uruguay has an Army of 8.000, plus well-trained police and mounted Republican Guards of 5,400. Uruguay’s Air Force is being built from scratch with a military-aviation school and a $5,000,000 fund to buy 400 planes and equipment, but she has no Navy worth mentioning.

ABC. Greatest military strength in South America lies in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. By far the strongest of these is Argentina. Its Navy is the best in the South Atlantic, consists of two battleships, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, 16 destroyers, three submarines, ten minesweepers, four old coast-defense ships, about 30 small craft. Naval personnel, including the naval Air Force and coast artillery, is 15,000 men, with 100,000 in reserve. Her Army is conscript, with professional cadres, amounts to 41,000 regulars, 233,000 reserves. Argentina has one of South America’s two Marine Corps (Brazil has the other), with 61 officers, 3,800 rrren. The U. S. maintains naval advisers in Argentina, and a crack mission of aviation advisers who are helping to train an Air Force. The Army Air Force consists of 120 first-rank planes, 300 trainers and obsolete ships, 200 pilots, 1,800 mechanics. The Navy has an Air Corps of 50 ships.

Last week Acting President Ramon S. Castillo opened a campaign to train 5.000 civilian fliers in three years, and before Congress is a bill to spend $90,000,000 on military aviation, making Argentina supreme in the air over South America. Argentina’s rearmament program provides for the expenditure of $225,000,000 in addition to $60,000,000 spent since 1930.

The Navy will get a new cruiser, three destroyers, a submarine.

Chile has a peacetime Army of 20,000, 17,000 carabineros, 160,000 reserves. The Army was German-trained for half a century, until the last mission left in 1939.

The U. S. now has a military aviation mission in Chile. Total Air Force personnel is 1,360 men and 800 reserves, but Chile has only about 100 planes. Last August a $40,000.000 national-defense plan was announced, under which a large slice would be spent for aviation equipment and 200 U. S.-made bombing and pursuit planes.

The Chilean Navy consists of one battleship, three obsolete cruisers, eight destroyers, nine submarines, 20 smaller vessels.

Naval personnel: 6,500 sailors, 1,200 coast artillerymen.

As Brazil’s General Goes Monteiro sailed for Rio de Janeiro last week, his Assistant Chief of Staff, General Almerio de Moura, staged a sham battle in the Parahyba Valley, where in 1932 Goes Monteiro put down a Paulista revolt against President Getulio Vargas. As in 1932, troops holding the valley threw the attackers back—a good omen for the future, when trouble might come from Brazil’s German-populated South. For the first time Brazilian Panzer divisions (machine-gunners on motorcycles) took part in the annual maneuvers. Watching the maneuvers for the last time was a French military mission, which has been replaced by U. S. advisers. The French mission loaded Brazil with World War I equipment; Brazil has now turned to the U. S.

for arms.

Weaker than Argentina, Brazil is nevertheless improving her military and naval position, is considering revamping her entire establishment, increasing her Army to 300,000 men, backing it with a potent armament industry. The regular Army now has a peacetime strength of 80,000, reserves of 161,000, state militias of 64,000 an untrained manpower potential of 1,720,000. The Navy has two battleships, two flotilla leaders, four submarines, four destroyers, eight minelayers, two minesweepers, six torpedo boats, some 15 auxiliaries. Naval personnel: 14,000 actives, 15,000 reserves. The Air Forces (Army and Navy) amount to 214 planes and the Government has just ordered 100 training planes. Brazil’s first parachute factory opened in September.

With the three ABC countries rearming at high speed the U. S. can look forward to a strong squthern half of the Hemisphere to balance the strong northern half the U. S. and Canada are building. But there are possibilities of trouble ahead.

With her head start on Brazil and Chile, Argentina stands to increase her margin of superiority until she is the dominant military power on the continent. Then she might decide to go her own way regardless of the U. S. And if Argentina, Chile and Brazil ever got to squabbling among themselves, as they have done before, there would be hemispheric hell to pay.