Before the war, the Royal Navy's South America Division regularly visited regional ports and reinforced Foreign Office work. Uruguay received repeated ship calls, while Eugen Millington-Drake's support for Olympic and football efforts made him unusually popular. His close relations with naval officers and knowledge of port-visit rules let him translate naval requests into effective diplomacy. The leverage used in crisis had been built through ordinary peacetime contact.
Chapter · 26:55-29:29
Routine naval visits build British influence in Uruguay
Regular South America Division visits and Eugen Millington-Drake's local relationships created the peacetime influence Britain later used at Montevideo.