26o 



The Review of Reviews. 



larger Republics, as Mexico, or Colombia, or Brazil, 

 or Argentina, leaving the remaining immense territory 

 available for European expansion. Can Tripoli 

 compare with the broad anri fertile plains of Northern 

 Venezuela, bordering on the Caribbean ? Or Morocco, 

 with the Atlantic coast section of Colombia, where 

 the Magdalena waters a marvellous valley, in no wa\' 

 inferior to that of the Nile, and equally well situated 

 geographically ? Can the Congo compare favourably 

 with the .'\mazon, or Madagascar or West Africa with 

 the inner lands of Peru, of Bolivia, or of Ecuador ? 



THE POSSIBILITY OF CONQUEST. 



If an army of 100,000 men were to land suddenh-. 

 without warning or provocation, in true Italian 

 fashion, on the coast of one of these Republics, with a 

 population of three or four million inhabitants, 

 scattered over a territory twice the size of Germany or 

 of France, and practically unprepared for war, all 

 resistance would be unavailing ; the civilised com- 

 munities of Latin-America would succumb like the 

 nations of the Eastern hemisphere. 



The consideration of such possibilities implies no 

 wanton spirit of alarmism. If Tripoli has been 

 thought .worth Italy's present effort, and Morocco 

 France's recent venture, why should not the infinitelv 

 richer Caribbean coast of South America fare likewise ? 

 No one in his senses, surely, would outrage the Powers 

 by supposing that their abstention has been prompted 

 by moral considerations ; their reputation is too well 

 established. Their respect of the territorial rights of 

 I.atin-American nations is as meritorious as the 

 honesty of the man who found the safe locked. 



The disparity between territory and population 

 makes the condition of the American nations one of 

 weakness. The safeguard that has protected them 

 from European expansion still subsists. On the other 

 hand, the danger of an aggression, which may become 

 the one supreme rallying effort of moribund systems, 

 is constantly on the increase. No effort should be 

 spared to strengthen a protection which has proved 

 so efficacious and decisive in the past. 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 



There was an element of prophetic inspiration in 

 the Declaration of President Monroe, uttered in 182^. 

 It rang through the world like a peal of thunder ; k 

 paralysed the Holy Alliance, and defmcd, once and for 

 all time, as far as Europe is concerned, the international 

 status of the newly constituted American Republics, 



The most important part of the Monroe Declaration 

 reads : — 



In the wars of the F.uropc.in Towors, !n mailers relating to 

 llicmsclvcs, we have never taken any pari, nor docs il comport 

 with our policy ?o to do. It is only when our rij-hls are 

 inv.iHed or seriously menaced that we resent injuiies or make 

 preparations for defence. With the movements in this hemi- 

 sphere wc are of necessity more immediately connected, and liy 

 causes which must be obvious to all cnli(jlitcnc(l and impartial 

 ol«ervcrs. The political system of the Allied Powers is essen- 

 tially diircrenl, in this respect, from that of America. This 

 difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective 

 Kovcrnments. And to the defence of out own, which has been 



achieved by the loss of so niiicli blood and treasure, and matured 

 by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under 

 which we have enjoyed such unexampled felicity, this whole 

 nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candour, .ind to the 

 amicable relations existing between the United Slates and those 

 Powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on 

 their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemi- 

 sphere as dangerous to our pe.ice and safely. With the existing 

 colonies or dependencies of any European Power we have not 

 interfered, and shall not interfere. But wilh the Governments 

 who have declared their independence and maintained it, and 

 whose independence ne have on great consideration and on 

 just principles acknowledged, we could not view any interposi- 

 tion for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any 

 other mariner their destiny, in any other light than as the 

 manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United 

 Stales. 



THE SHIELD OF .iVMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 



The immunity from European aggression which the 

 Latin-American nations have enjoyed since their 

 emancipation, to this da}-, is exclusively due to the 

 Declaration of President Monroe, which', having been 

 uttered one year before the final overthrow of Spain in 

 ICS24, was like a gift, which the nascent nationalities 

 found in the cradle of their newly conquered liberties. 

 European conquest was banned from the American 

 continent. 



Sovereignty to a nation is as life to the individual : 

 partial conquest of a nation's territory is mutilation. 

 These truths must illuminate the appreciation of the 

 scope and meaning of the Monroe Declaration, which 

 has successfully stood the test of well-nigh a centurv 

 of I':uropean expansion of unprecedented persistence 

 and intensity. 



The immunity from conquest, however, has not been 

 absolute. The United States themselves have on 

 occasions turned conquerors. It serves no purpose to 

 labour the point here. A glance at the map proves 

 the assertion beyond perad\enture of a doubt. Thus, 

 notwithstanding the evident and supreme benefits that 

 have been conferred upon the Latin-American nations 

 by the Monroe Declaration, benefits which, in manv 

 instances, may be well considered as equivalent to 

 national life itself, a spirit of distrust has been created 

 throughout the whole of Latin-America, varving in 

 degree according to local conditions and possible 

 dangers— real or imaginary— which, if not counteracted 

 and dispelled, may tend to modifv, prejudiciallv, the 

 conditions which thus far have made the American 

 continent inaccessible to European political expansion. 



In the presence of such dire possibilities it beho^■es 

 the statesmen and the people of all the American 

 nations to eliminate all cau.sc for friction and anxiety, 

 letting the dead past bury its dead, looking solely to 

 the future, mindful that recrimination never meiided 

 a wrong, and often was the source of fresh evils. 



" AMERICA FOR THE AMERICANS." 



" America for Americans " is suppo.sed to be the 

 essence of the Monroe Declaration. The tenet, if I 

 rightly interpreted, embodies a noble ideal. It cannot 'k 

 and has not stood for limitation of the geographical I 

 place of birth or of racial character, as is shown by thej 



M 



