NOT INTERESTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 24, 29 January 1938, Page 19

NOT INTERESTED.

FASCISM !N ARGENTINE. REPORTS OF SPREAD DENIED. BUENOS AYRES. That the spread of Fascism among the Argentine people is limited to the following that can be obtained by a handful of superior young men. on the one hand and by a few long-haired cranks among university students on the other is the opinion expressed by Dr -Manuel Carles, president of the Argentine Patriotic League, a non-pclitical entity embodying the 100 per ceat Argentine spirit. He laughed to ecorn the suggestion that the Argentine people might embrace Fascism as the result of propaganda. He declared the Argentine people who for 20 years endured the tyranny of Manuel Rozae are not likely to ask for more of it. Nor are they likely to swallow the totalitarian sophism to the effect that the interests of the individual must be subordinated to those of society, and that to attain that end they muet voluntarily become nonentities or automata in a State governed to the liking of a pinchbeck dictator and his clique of sycophants. » well nigh inconceivable," he declared, "that anyone can .eay 1 voluntarily choose to live without any voice whatever in the government of my country; I am content to know nothing of what goes on in the world except such things as appear good in the sight of a jack-in-office; and I am content to be severely punished if caught with a short wave wireless receiver that brings me the views of democratic thinkers/' . Asked his opinion of the assertion that the 5,000,000 of Italians and those of Italian descent in Argentina constitute a growing Fascist menace, Dr. Carles replied that the vast majority of Italian immigrants are anti-Fascists. No Fascist Tinge. Kecently an Italian Senator, eent on a special mission to Argentina to sound the feeling of resident Italians, returned to his country completely disillusioned. He found Fascism did not interest Argentine citizens, the Italians nor the Argentine sons. Dr. Carles said persons who believe in rule by a select minority exist in Argentina as elsewhere. They are not numerous, and in any case there is no Fascist tinge to their obeession. He does not believe the reported proposal to restrict suffrage is likely to prosper even if seriously made, but he said that one of Argentina's problems is to repel the encroachments on democracy which are made by corrupt politicians who endeavour to twist the popular vote for their purposes. Full suffrage is invulnerable here, he added. There is a growing conviction here that protests nic.de by the Argentine Labour Federation against recent deportation of five Labour Union leaders have been motivated by the fact that the men cheibhed Communist ideals which the federation has no desire to foster. The protests which have been made have referred more to the men's deportation to Italy than to the deportation order. In fact, in other than Labour circles the handing over of these men to Fascist gaolers has been criticised severely, having been compared with throwing the Christians to the lions.