Washington, Washington, & Washington

A bespectacled young diplomat by the name of Samuel Walter Washington from West Virginia watched with concern the Brazilian revolution swirl about his head.

At the U. S. Embassy in Rio de Janeiro his chief. Ambassador Edwin Vernon Morgan, an oldster with 18 years' service in Brazil, was away from his post having fun on a Paris vacation. Secretary Washington, 29, Rhodes Scholar, was in charge. Only four years in the U. S. foreign service, he had been in Rio less than a twelvemonth. He did his conscientious best to keep the State Department in Washington posted on the ebb and flow of the civil war. It looked to him as if the rebels would be defeated by the Federal forces of President Washington Luis and he so informed Secretary of State Henry Lewis Stimson.

This information jibed with Statesman Stimson's preconceptions of the Brazilian revolt. The U. S. Government, having officially entertained Handsome Julio Prestes, President Washington Luis's elected successor, in Washington last June, had every reason to want and expect him to take office this month. On the strength of Secretary Washington's reports and the direct request of the Brazilian Ambassador in Washington, President Hoover last week clapped down an arms embargo against the revolutionists. Penalty for its violation: $10,000 fine, two years in gaol.

At the State Department the rebels were described as little better than bandits. Munitions and arms including a dozen airplanes were shipped to the support of the Brazilian federals. Statesman Stimson explained that, though this was the first time the U. S. had applied an embargo to a South American revolution, it was no precedent because the same method had been used before under international law to squelch rebellions in Mexico, Central America, China.

Back to Rio from Paris last week hurried Ambassador Morgan. Two days after his arrival, less than 48 hours after the Washington embargo, the Washington Luis government fell with a resounding thump which jarred official nerves in Washington (see p. 24). But it was not too late for Ambassador Morgan to salvage some U. S. goodwill (U. S. trade with Brazil: $316,000,000 per year). He cabled Statesman Stimson:

"A military junta consisting of ... responsible officers of long service well known to me personally ... has taken over the government and is establishing normal conditions. . . . Popular enthusiasm is being expressed in a carnival spirit. ...Red flags have been displayed but they indicate revolution and not communism. . . ."

Though he was flabbergasted at the turn of events. Secretary Stimson saw a ray of hope in Ambassador Morgan's friendly relations with the new junta. Perhaps by a neat diplomatic formula the junta could somehow be construed as a perfectly legal continuation of the Luis government and therefore not require fresh recognition by the U. S.

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