Recognition No. 2

In a bitter whistling wind on the plains outside Hsinking, owl-eyed Henry Pu Yi announced to his ancestors on March 1 that he was about to become Emperor Kang Teh of Manchukuo. Later that day he buttoned himself into a Field Marshal's uniform and ascended his throne. Japan, which was the first and, so far as the world knew until last week, the last power to recognize his puppet government (TIME, Sept. 26, 1932), sent official congratulations. The League of Nations did not dare punish Japan directly for its invasion of Manchuria, but on the strength of the Lytton report it did pass a resolution binding all League members not to recognize Manchukuo.

One who sympathized with the lonely plight of owl-eyed Emperor Henry was swart little President General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez of El Salvador, a nation about as large as Maryland. President Martinez, a vegetarian, a teetotaller and an authority on agricultural reform, had been in office more than two years before the U. S. recognized him, knew only too well the penalties of nonrecognition. On Jan. 26 of this year, President Roosevelt was ready to admit the existence of President Martinez. Thirty-six days later President Martinez was ready to admit privily the existence of Emperor Kang Teh. But he apparently saw no urgent reason to make a scene over the face of that recognition, while the first excitement over a new Far Eastern empire was still boiling.

Geneva sat up and stared last week when Salvadorean Consul General Leon Siguenza went round to the Manchukuan Embassy in Tokyo to recognize that country all over again publicly. Thus El Salvador was disclosed as the first League member to break the League's nonrecognition resolution and set a precedent that may cause serious trouble.* No matter how gingerly they handled Japan, nobody in Geneva was afraid of El Salvador. Sternly they talked of booting the recalcitrant little republic out of the League. Foreign Minister Angel Araujo ruffled his hackles to defend El Salvador's honor. "I do not believe the step taken by El Salvador will injure anybody in the world. ... In recognizing Manchukuo El Salvador acted as a free, sovereign and independent nation, which does not need any lessons in conduct except from its own laws and international obligations." The moral satisfaction of membership in the League of Nations costs impoverished El Salvador $6,000 a year. Snorted Diario Latino: "Our country has never had any benefit from the League. When it was isolated politically from the world because of lack of recognition of the present government, not even a breath was heard from Geneva." Last year El Salvador sent exactly nothing to Japan, imported 684,000 yen worth of goods. In Tokyo Consul General Siguenza announced: "The recognition of Manchukuo is purely a matter of business, the outgrowth of El Salvador's acute need of new markets for her coffee. ... If America bought more than 20% of our coffee exports, of course, El Salvador would have less need for new outlets." In return for favors, El Salvador had a nice bargain to offer Japan. The Salvadorean constitution expressly forbids the immigration of Chinese and Mongolians, but, said Consul General Siguenza, exceptions will be made for subjects of Manchukuo.

*El Salvador never actually voted for the League Assembly's resolution, was one of five or six minor nations that "forgot" to reply to the League's check-up circular.

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