Would that the millions of able-bodied men murdered by this war could have been utilized instead as an agricultural expeditionary force on the shores of the River Plate! They and their children and the world would have been the richer for their labour carried out under conditions as happy as their present, and for many (alas!) past, task is terrible. They would have supplied that in which Argentina and Uruguay are lacking, namely, the human element, for the development of their natural resources. Countries in which vast areas of land yet await the plough for cereal cultivation and the improvement of their natural rough pasturage and other vast areas of rich alluvial soil need only irrigation to turn them into a terrestrial paradise. Capital never is and never will be wanting for good investment, but the fund of human labour cannot be drawn upon by a mere signature. And the daily waste of thousands of lives for the full activity of which there is ample room and urgent need on behalf of the millions remaining is, sentiment apart and from a commercial point of view alone, the saddest thing in War. Europe needs bread and meat not only to fulfil her normal needs but also to replace her own interrupted production of these prime necessities of life. The River Plate countries can produce both in practically unlimited quantities; provided only that they can obtain the necessary labour a ghastly wastage of which is going on daily in Europe, some parts of which are consequently threatened with famine. Surely if civilization be anything but a mere theoretic expression there will never be another great war! With this pious hope we may pass to a more concrete subject, namely, commercial credit on both sides of the River Plate. As has been indicated in another chapter, Uruguay enjoys a more literally creditable reputation than her bigger sister. The causes of this have also been already dealt with. In practice one can but advise anyone approached by firms in either country to do what it may be taken that any ordinarily prudent man of business would do, viz. to make due enquiry as to his proposed new customer. His means of doing this are really even better than if the latter were established in London or New York, since the commercial community in either Argentina or Uruguay is comparatively small and consequently, to use a current phrase, almost everyone there knows everyone else and a good deal about him and his business. Several of the chief banks in Buenos Aires and Montevideo have their head offices in London and all have branches or accredited correspondents in the principal European and North American capitals and commercial centres.[21]