Meet the South Americans

HARPERS

MR. CROW’S book does not pretend to be either thorough or systematic; it is informal and sketchy to the last degree; it contains some deplorable writing and shows an equally deplorable lack of proofreading. Nevertheless it has for us North American readers a first-rate importance of a specially timely sort. Mr. Crow went to considerable trouble to convince himself on the spot — in fact, on the wide range of crucial spots from Buenos Aires to Bogotá — that the Nazi infiltration of South America is nothing like the formidable menace at which we have been taught to shudder. He looked searchingly into what the Nazis have actually accomplished to date toward the control of South American opinion, the fomenting of political subversion, the domination of trade, the organization of fifth-column activities, and the intimidation of German-American groups. His facts and figures foot up to an overwhelming demonstration. Long before we have absorbed half of them we find ourselves believing exactly what he does: to wit, that Hitler’s agents have tried to do everything the worst alarmists charge them with, but that their efforts are so inept and footling, and their successes so pitiful in relation to the money and ingenuity expended, that we can well afford to survey them with a watchful amusement, precisely as our Brazilian or Chilean neighbors seem to be doing.

In fine, we have had gooseflesh over everything the Nazis would like to achieve if they could, while nothing has even directed our attention to the possibility that their hopes are fatuous and their achievements correspondingly negligible. This salutary office Mr. Crow performs in a sequence of three honest, cogent, very reassuring chapters. They should earn him much applause and more gratitude, for, with so many real scares to keep us awake nights, the man who allays a fictitious scare is nothing less than a public benefactor.

W. F.