Racing toward the important diplomatic and commercial goal of the United States of Brazil this week were two highly placed rival representatives of opposing political and economic systems. Nearing Rio de Janeiro from the North on the U. S. light cruiser Nashville was Brigadier General George Catlett Marshall, soon to become U. S. Army Chief of Staff. Heading for Brazil from the East on the Italian liner Conte Grande was high-powered, gay, vivacious Countess Edda Ciano, wife of the Italian Foreign Minister, favorite daughter of Benito Mussolini.
General. Behind General Marshall's visit was a story of German intrigue and U. S. counter-intrigue. Führer Hitler had invited General Pedro Aurelio Goes Monteiro, Brazilian Chief of Staff, to visit Berlin. The Führer was prepared to shower the General with compliments, among them the honor of marching down Unter den Linden at the head of a specially picked regiment of Nazi troops.
U. S. Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles got wind of the German plans, quickly made a counterproposal to Brazil. The U. S. would be delighted to send General Marshall to visit General Góes Monteiro, would be more than pleased to have the Brazilian Army man come back with the U. S. General on a U. S. warship on a return visit to the U.S. At this happy prospect General Góes Monteiro, in Rio de Janeiro last week, oozed satisfaction:
"It has been among the greatest desires of my life to visit the United States, but in my wildest dreams I never believed I would go there aboard a United States warship with a chief of the United States Army who had come specially to take me along."
Countess. While the General's visit could be put down as an outcropping of the Roosevelt Good Neighbor policy, the motives behind Countess Ciano's visit were less apparent, perhaps more subtle. The clever, scheming, 32-year-old Edda is no mean politician and diplomat. She was one of the behind-the-scenes architects of the Rome-Berlin Axis. As the apple of Papa Benito's eye, pro-German Daughter Edda was largely instrumental in persuading II Duce to go the whole hog in his attachment to the German Führer.
In Rome it was said that the Countess' physicians had ordered a sea trip for her long-suffering lungs. At the same time she would be able to visit friends that Count Ciano made in Rio in 1925, when he was an Italian consul there. The Countess traveled with tall, blonde, plump Marchesa Aleazzo Guido di Bagno, wife of the man who represents the hotel industry in the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations. The Countess and the Marchesa are considered leaders of Rome's younger smart set.
But health notwithstanding, Brazilians believed Countess Ciano's visit was directly connected with the fierce commercial battle now being waged in Brazil, where the U. S. and Germany are running neck & neck for trade supremacy.