A representative of a peaceful people is always welcome to Brazil. You
know already our traditional policy. From the beginning of our existence
as a nation we have accustomed ourselves to see in your glorious country
the nation which, first of all, substituted for military imperialism the
beneficent and civilizing policy of free commercial expansion, joining
producers and consumers without any link of dependence.
We followed with ardent sympathy your liberal and eminently humane
action in the Chinese Empire, at the moment when that monarchy seemed
doomed to dismemberment.
And you, sir, were the first to make understood the need of the
maintenance of the administrative and territorial _status quo_ of that
empire, to which, as well as to other nationalities of the Far East, you
are today the securest guaranty of national integrity.
You come to us, therefore, with the credentials of a peaceful people,
and of a people that respects the autonomy of other nations, no matter
how weak they may be.
In this quality we open to you our arms, and we heartily meet your
wishes in the assurance that we contribute to the development of the
ideas of peace and steadiness, without which the evolution of a people
can only be accomplished imperfectly and at the cost of many centuries
of hard effort.
The United States of Brazil acknowledged the advantages of a perfect
communion of views in commercial matters with their great sister of
North America. They were aware that essentially opposite points of view
regarding commercial interchange separate them from some of the nations
of the Old World.
So long as on the other side of the Atlantic an almost invincible
barrier of customs duties impedes the entry of our products into markets
naturally hostile to South American productions, our country has only
two alternatives: either to continue the very irksome commercial
relations with those markets, or to look for others with evident loss of
a part of the harmony that ought to exist between nations affiliated by
origin and for so many years united by the most intimate links of
sympathy and intellectual solidarity.
Consequently, we adopted the legitimate defense of protectionism, while
remaining faithful to those friendly feelings, and very naturally we
turned to the continental nation that better understood the advantages
of a free exchange of products; we looked unsuspiciously to the friendly
people who conceived the idea of making in America, united and strong,
a large neutral area devoted to peace amidst the possible divergencies
that may perchance in time separate in aggressive antagonism a
rejuvenated and martial Orient and the nations of the West.
We understood at once the difficult task to be accomplished, in order,
by your side and with your aid, to secure the neutralization of America,
so desirable and so necessary for the final reconciliation of nations
still militarized, and for the establishment of a secure standpoint for
the general fraternization of mankind.
All the enthusiastic appreciation of the twenty-one democracies that
follow and love your deed, and all the facilities and cooperation that
they can offer for its accomplishment, you will find, sir, should you
visit them as you now do one of their number, in the corresponding
twenty-one Brazilian capitals.
The Commercial School of Sao Paulo, from which very likely will come
later commercial agents of Brazil, sincerely espouses your policy of
peace and solidarity on the American continent; and in the person of its
eminent chancellor salutes the noble North American nation.