Argentina's President
Argentina's presidential elections, held on Sunday, will have a decisive effect on the future of the South American continent and may have even more far-reaching consequences. The two candidates are Dr. Tamborini, representing a Radical-Socialist-Communist bloc, which also has the sympathy of many Conservatives and of foreign interests in Argentina, and the demagogue Colonel Juan Domingo Peron, who wishes to make himself the dictator of Argentina, and Argentina the dominating power in South America. At the moment all indications are that Colonel Peron will be elected, unless he stages a coup d'etat which will make the election unnecessary. For electoral victory he depends chiefly on the labouring masses, whose support he won by the social reforms he initiated when a member of the Farrell Government ; he may be sure also that the Government will use every means, legal and illegal, to secure his return. In the event of a coup d'etat he can depend on the rank and file of the Army, and
even more on the police, which is packed with his adherents. The election of Peron would be a sign that Fascism as a world movement is not dead; and would be regarded with intense anxiety in the United States. The American Government last week -issued an official document indicting the Farrell Government, in which Colonel Peron, though not a member, is the dominating force, for its totali- tarian tendencies and its close and continuing relations with German National Socialism. Colonel Peron has seized on the opportunity to represent himself as the defender of Argentina against foreign " interference" and may increase his popularity by doing so. He has one more trump in his hand. In a world threatened with famine, he knows that control of Argentina's surplus food production is a strong insurance that the great democracies cannot afford to translate disapproval into practical action against him.
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