The war has favoured this spirit of Americanism in a tangible way through the growth of economic intercourse. On a higher and broader plane, the same thing is happening. We saw this when Brazil severed relations with Germany. Her announcement, communicated to her neighbour-republics, was received with a kind of demonstration of Latin-American solidarity. Almost every Latin-American state responded in terms of warm appreciation and sympathy. The Argentine Government wrote that it "appreciated thoroughly the attitude of Brazil, which was justified by principles of universal public right, and expressed to Brazil the most sincere sentiments of confraternity."
As the Americano looks across the Atlantic, he may congratulate himself, not without a feeling of civic pride, that he belongs to another world, a system of republics living at peace with one another. A century ago Canning boasted, "I have called a New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old." It was a prophecy rather than a boast. Now is the time for that New World to fulfil that prophecy by realising itself, by creating itself.
It is no inconsistency to add once more that Latin America is at the same time drawing nearer to all the nations of the world, that its long-standing historic connexion with Europe becomes emphasised and extended. Who could have foretold, even a year ago, that the Republics of Peru and of Uruguay would offer the use of their ports to the warships of belligerent European monarchies, that Brazil, Cuba and Panamá would be represented, as recently happened, at the Allied Conference in Paris, or that a Brazilian squadron would be acting with the British fleet in European waters? It can no longer be said of these states, as was said some years ago, that they stand upon the margin of international life. This closer participation in world affairs does not contradict, but rather confirms and explains, what has been said concerning the growth of _Americanismo_, the consolidation of a younger and distinct Europe across the ocean. As these states become drawn into the general movement of world affairs, they are compelled to define more clearly their own position in a world of their own. One may find some analogy in the British Empire, whose members, as they grow into nations and become severally involved in relations with all other peoples, find it more necessary to reaffirm and to define their relations with one another.