Trade Embassy

To the opulent estancieros whose ranches cover most of Argentina the smartest rendezvous on earth is El Jockey Club in sophisticated Buenos Aires. One night last week the sumptuously baroque club was con fiesta for some jovial Britons. Champagne popped and sizzled. Frankly the Britons admitted they were out for Argentine trade. Hospitably they were toasted and cheered. "Welcome! Welcome to Argentina!" cried Dr. Joaquin Sanchez de Anchorena, oldtime toastmaster of El Club. "I cannot praise too highly British achievement in stock-raising and horse-breeding. Rest assured we are ready to give preferential attention to the aims of your economic mission."

The slender, patrician Englishman who rose to reply is Viscount d'Abernon of Stoke d'Abernon. A brilliant master of conciliation he scored heavily as the Empire's first Ambassador in sullen Berlin directly after the War. His brain conceived the Locarno Pacts. When three other statesmen--Briand, Chamberlain, Stresemann--carried through his idea and each won a Nobel Peace Prize, he contentedly retired. Germany had been brought back into the comity of nations and he did not care who got the credit. In the same spirit Viscount d'Abernon recently con- sented to head the unofficial British Trade Mission to South America which was champagned at El Jockey Club last week. For him it is another adventure in conciliation. He will try to win back as much as possible of the Argentine trade which Great Brit ain has lost since 1914 to the U. S. and since 1920 to Germany.

Said Lord d'Abernon sonorously: "The fact belongs to history that England was the first foreign country to manifest sympathy for Argentina and to offer material help." Then, while his Jockey Club audience occasionally cheered, the Viscount recalled that Britain has nearly two billion dollars invested in Argentina, mostly in railways and cattle. Humorously he noted that Argentina's Prize Bull of 1929 had just been bought at auction in Buenos Aires by the British Bovril (Beef Extract) Co. (slogan: BOVRIL puts BEEF into YOU!). "It seems to me," concluded Viscount d'Abernon, "that the reciprocal friendship uniting our countries is of a very special order."

Thus far proceedings had been sufficiently decorous, but now Sir Malcolm Robertson, British Ambassador to Argentina and not a member of the d'Abernon Trade Mission, hove up upon his feet and cried: "Let the price of Argentine meat and wheat rise! Thanks to the work which you are going to give the British workman he will be able to meet these conditions with the extra money which will be put in his pocket."

"It is one of our priceless riches!" cried Toastmaster de Anchorena. "It is something we preserve with tenderness and care!"

Such was the first inkling that Sir Malcolm might have roughed out in recent months a reciprocal trade agreement between Britain and Argentina which awaited only final negotiation by Viscount d'Abernon and his confirmation in behalf of the Imperial Government. At Buenos Aires the Jockey Club banquet was followed by rapid, intensive, well-hushed work. Paradoxically, the first official announcement of success was made in far off London. To respectful British newsgatherers a frosty official of the Foreign Office cau- tiously revealed that: 1) The agreement signed by Viscount d'Abernon last week is "provisional and expected to run for two years"; 2) During this period specified Argentine purchase of -L-8,000,000 ($38,880,000) worth of British manufactured goods will be balanced by specified British purchases of Argentine foodstuffs and raw materials of an equal value; 3) Details of the agreement were withheld, pending a formal and joint announcement by both Governments, but it was meagerly stated without explanation that the Argentine products to be bought by Britain would be "purchased through the usual channels," and that the British goods to be bought by Argentina would be "chiefly for railways and public works."

When the London announcement was cabled to Argentina, ferreting Buenos Aires reporters wormed out the further fact that the d'Abernon mission had arranged an Anglo-Argentine floating credit of -L-16,000,000 ($77,760.000) to facilitate the mutual buying and selling provided for in the main agreement. The usually well-informed La Prensa declared that the British Government would use its -L-8,000,000 ($38,880,000) purchases of Australian food and raw materials "to feed and clothe the British Army and Navy."

There was also a report that Lord d'Abernon had arranged for a $200,000,000 private British loan to the Argentine Government for road building purposes. Both La Prensa and equally famed La Nation were skeptical of the constitutional right of Argentina's fanatically secretive President Hipolito Irigoyen to sign rich, special agreements without consulting the Argentine Congress. "Even members of the President's Cabinet," said La Nation indignantly, "knew absolutely nothing of what was afoot."

Aside from the d'Abernon visit, the great event in Argentina, last week, was the end of a cataclysmic six-month drought. Both the flax and wheat crops were on the point of utter ruin. Grazing grass had withered and died. Ranchers had petitioned for Government aid to buy fodder and save their cattle.