ARGENTINA POLITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 299, 18 December 1935, Page 15

ARGENTINA POLITICS.

OUTSPOKEN CRITICS. "FLAUNTING THE PEOPLES' WILL." BUENOS AYRES, November 8. The unsettled political situation in Argentina has not been improved by recent federal intervention in some of the autonomous provincial governments, or by the failure of the Minister of Finance to introduce a balanced budget, or, indeed, any budget at all.

Argentine newspapers have been unusually outspoken in their condemnation of the administration's lapses from democratic principles, and especially of the ruling party's over-riding of the electoral laws of the country which, it is charged, has 110 other object than that of placing formidable obstacles in the path of the radical opposition. In fact, some see little to choose between the methods of the Yrigoyenist regime which led to the revolution of 1930 and those employed by the present Government. They interpret the "persecution" of the Radical party which is estimated to embrace 70 per cent of the population, as a confession of weakness, and see in it a source of certain trouble in the not distant future unless a halt is called to such methods.

"There can be only one end to such a policy, for it is common knowledge that opposition to the public will ends in one way and one way only." says the liiionos Ay res "Herald". "Most of us will recall the days which preceded the overthrow of the Yrigoyon administration. Waste was rampant, unsound finance dominated the country, political corruption was the order of the day, while provincial rights were over-ridden bv federal intervention.

"But what of the government of to-day? Is it not a. fact that the ruling party has been enabled to outrage the electoral freedom of the citizens resident in the province of Buenos Ayres? .Ts it not also true that the country has stepped back a quarter of a century and over-ridden the reformed electoral laws passed under the aegis of President Uoque Saenz Pena?

"When Yrigoyon and his associates were swept aside in Ifl.'iO the provisional Minister of Finance, Dr. Perez, declared that the country's budget ought not to exceed 050 million pesos —exactly the amount which the Association of Bondholders estimated to be the limit of the nation's taxable capacity. To-day that expenditure has risen to around one billion po.sos—a staggering figure worthy of the worst essays of the Yrigoyen regime. In other words, the political dictatorship is an established fact. The financial dictatorship is accepted by congress without question. And the majority of Iho population is opposed to both.

"\Yili the nation indefinitely permit a small group of individuals to increase expenditure and taxation without any real opportunity for discussion? Will it permit the deprivation of long established franchiso rights and offer no word of protest? There can be only one end to such a situation."

Many observers look upon the postponement of the November general election until next March as an electioneering dodge designed to gain time in which to find means to ensure victory for the minority, with*the inevitable result that General Justo's administration is losing out in the estimation of the people who hailed its advent to power with general satisfaction.