LATIN AMERICAN FASCISM

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 203, 25 May 1944, Page 5

LATIN AMERICAN FASCISM

Widening Influence Ot Argentine Regime DOMINANT MILITARY (By Telegraph.—Prlss Assn. —Copyright.) (Received May 24, 9.40 p.m.) BOSTON, May 23. A resurgence of Argentine diplomacy is the -most significant political current in South America, says a special correspondent of the “Christian Science Monitor,” Ronald Sharp, who recently completed a six months’ survey of that continent. The .unchecked Fascist thinking and diplomacy of Buenos Aires is spreading its subversive roots to neighbouring countries, says the correspondent. Bolivia and Paraguay are visibly tinder Argentine influence after the brief period of United States and Brazilian ascendancy. Chile has withstood the Fascist pressure, but sometimes wavered. Only Uruguay remains an undaunted champion of the democratic way of life. Mr. Sharp says he found discontent rampant in Paraguay, but brutally suppressed. Concentration camps are filled with political prisoners, most of whom are guilty merely of being liberal. Government officials deny that Argentina has played a direct part in the drastic'cooling off of Paraguayan and Bolivian relations with the United States, but the denial is merely diplomatic. The younger officers dominate all three States. The Premier, General Farrell, is a figurehead in Argentina. Pressure on Neighbours.

A similar survey of Latin America has been made by the Chicago “Tribune’s” correspondent, Stanley Johnston, who says that the United States’ policy of pouring money into South America with the object of -buying goodwill has actually contributed to the formation of an anti-United States bloc. Centred round Argentia, the bloc consists of Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile, which are applying heavy pressure on Uruguay and southern Brazil to join them. Argentina is the natural leader of South America by virtue of her excellent economic position and the highest standard of living on the continent. She is actually a potent rival to the United- States. Mr. Johnston says he saw plenty of evidence that the Argentine military officers were striving to create bad feeling between Uruguay and Brazil, holding out a bait to southern Brazil, populated largely by Germans, to join the Argentine-controlled bloc against the pro-Allied northern and central sections of the country.