REACTIONARY AS EVER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 July 1943, Page 3

REACTIONARY AS EVER

THE ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT REPORTED FASCIST PLANS. SUPPRESSION OF FREEDOM. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK. July 23. The firm hand the Argentine Government is taking with Democrats and Liberals, and a tighter censorship, are believed to indicate that President Ramirez is preparing the country for a long term of dictatorial government. The “Baltimore Sun’s” correspondent in Argentina says it is likely that an attempt will be made to constitute a nationalist corporative state, modelled on Italian Fascism. Those who rushed into the streets on June 4 scouting “Long live democracy!” are now disillusioned. President Ramirez has not repudiated his long association with the pro-Fascist nationalist movement, which he helped to organise. The storm troop militia is now reported to number 700,000, with uniformed brigades in every important town in Argentina. President Ramirez was asked at a Press conference if be were a democrat. He replied evasively: “What is Argentina? That is what I am.” A correspondent says the Ramirez Government has adopted as its mouthpiece the newspaper “El Pampero,” which is subsidised by the German Embassy. The Government remains evasive on its foreign policy, and slender hopes that it might veer-to the Allies are receding, says the “Christian Science Monitor’s” Lima correspondent. The censorship has been extended to incoming news, especially from the United States.