Visitors

Racing toward the important diplomatic and commercial goal of the United States of Brazil this week were two highly placed rival representatives of opposing political and economic systems. Nearing Rio de Janeiro from the North on the U. S. light cruiser Nashville was Brigadier General George Catlett Marshall, soon to become U. S. Army Chief of Staff. Heading for Brazil from the East on the Italian liner Conte Grande was high-powered, gay, vivacious Countess Edda Ciano, wife of the Italian Foreign Minister, favorite daughter of Benito Mussolini.

General. Behind General Marshall's visit was a story of German intrigue and U. S. counter-intrigue. Fuehrer Hitler had invited General Pedro Aurelio Goes Monteiro, Brazilian Chief of Staff, to visit Berlin. The Fuehrer was prepared to shower the General with compliments, among them the honor of marching down Unter den Linden at the head of a specially picked regiment of Nazi troops.

U. S. Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles got wind of the German plans, quickly made a counterproposal to Brazil. The U. S. would be delighted to send General Marshall to visit General Goes Monteiro, would be more than pleased to have the Brazilian Army man come back with the U. S. General on a U. S. warship on a return visit to the U.S. At this happy prospect General Goes Monteiro, in Rio de Janeiro last week, oozed satisfaction:

"It has been among the greatest desires of my life to visit the United States, but in my wildest dreams I never believed I would go there aboard a United States warship with a chief of the United States Army who had come specially to take me along."

Countess. While the General's visit could be put down as an outcropping of the Roosevelt Good Neighbor policy, the motives behind Countess Ciano's visit were less apparent, perhaps more subtle. The clever, scheming, 32-year-old Edda is no mean politician and diplomat. She was one of the behind-the-scenes architects of the Rome-Berlin Axis. As the apple of Papa Benito's eye, pro-German Daughter Edda was largely instrumental in persuading II Duce to go the whole hog in his attachment to the German Fuehrer.

In Rome it was said that the Countess' physicians had ordered a sea trip for her long-suffering lungs. At the same time she would be able to visit friends that Count Ciano made in Rio in 1925, when he was an Italian consul there. The Countess traveled with tall, blonde, plump Marchesa Aleazzo Guido di Bagno, wife of the man who represents the hotel industry in the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations. The Countess and the Marchesa are considered leaders of Rome's younger smart set.

But health notwithstanding, Brazilians believed Countess Ciano's visit was directly connected with the fierce commercial battle now being waged in Brazil, where the U. S. and Germany are running neck & neck for trade supremacy.

Germany buys Brazilian cotton, coffee, frozen meats and other goods by bartering German manufactured goods for them. The U. S. has met the challenge by cutting tariffs on Brazil nuts, castor beans and manganese at the same time that Brazil lowered her duties on U. S. automobiles, machines, canned fruits, cereals. The U. S. began the Brazilian battle in earnest in 1937, when President Roosevelt and Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau agreed to "sell" to Brazil some $60,000,000 worth of sterilized gold from the U. S. stabilization fund. It was the same sort of transaction which occurs frequently between the U. S., Great Britain and France, which have agreed to keep their currencies mutually in balance. The Brazilian transaction in effect pegged the milreis to the dollar. This spring the U. S. followed up with a short-term credit to Brazil of $20,-000,000 and a further loan of $50,000,000 made through the Export-Import Bank. Many were the predictions that Germany, faced with such solid competition, would have to retire from the race. Italian trade with Brazil is small, but what hurts Germany also can be expected indirectly to hurt the Italian partner of the Axis.

Coffee. Whatever her reasons for going to Brazil, the Countess could scarcely have chosen a worse time. Last week Italy was faced with a coffee shortage and Fascist Party Secretary General Achille Starace ordered all able-bodied Fascisti either to stop drinking coffee or to "reduce its consumption to the minimum." He recommended Italy's own "energetic autarchic drinks" (i.e., wine or herb beverages). Said Il Piccolo, Rome newsorgan: "It is not a sacrifice to return to the customs of our ancestors. Did the Romans drink coffee? No! Yet without the excitement of the Arabian drink they possessed such nervous energy that they created the Mediterranean civilization."

Signor Starace's excuse for the coffee ban was not the generally accepted reason that Italy was short of money, but rather to "spite those countries that instead of exchanging coffee for our goods would like our gold." This was taken to apply to Brazil, with whom Italy has no barter agreement. At any rate, the ban did not set well with Brazilians. In Italy wags suggested that perhaps Countess Ciano had set off for Brazil in search of a cup of coffee.

Yankees Wanted. That the U. S. is in better odor in Brazil than the Axis' powers was also suggested by Dr. Adhemar de Barros, Federal chief of Sao Paulo State, who in discussing Brazil's need for agricultural immigrants said: "I would like to bring some Yankee farmers down here." Later, in Washington, the Brazilian Embassy outlined a tentative ten-year-plan for the migration of 700,000 U. S. farm families to Government-owned or subsidized coffee plantations and wheat farms in Brazil.

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