CANADA and the American System

David Pike is a careful reader. He writes:

"The posting "Roderick J. Barman" on July 25 contained, apart from the typo in "British Colombia", an error of some magnitude. In 1941 Canada was not opposed to joining the OAS; there was simply no OAS to join - until the Treaty of Bogota in 1948. What should be looked at instead is Canada's attitude to the 1938 Treaty of Lima, which bound all the signatory states to go to the aid of any American state attacked by a non-American state. Canada, of course, was in the war from the very beginning, but when the Treaty of Lima was invoked, after the attack in December 1941, every single Latin American state failed in its obligation except for Brazil (which sent a combat division to the Italian campaign) and Mexico (which sent a squadron of aircraft to the Pacific, but which, to my knowledge, never entered combat.) When history texts reach the Age of Honesty, we will read accounts by Latin American historians showing how Latin America in World War II failed the moral test."

My comment. British Columbia, of course. I must have been thinking in Spanish. When I sent to UBC, an educated British colleague. said "I hope you enjoy Latin America." Incidentally, David recently scolded me for saying =Britisher." He says it sounds too Germanic. Sorry, we live and learn. I learned a long time ago not to say a "Chinaman," (a Britishism), so David too may have to change his lexicon, but, since he is a Parisian, he probably thinks "un chinois".

As for the OAS, David is right. It was the Pan American Union, but I did not wish to clutter up the posting.

David still hopes history texts will reach the Age of Honesty. My attempts to arouse interest in this subject by establishing an international depository of history textbooks have produced no action. When will simply the Age of Honesty come?

Ronald Hilton - 7/29/00