ARGENTINA REPLIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 April 1946, Page 5

ARGENTINA REPLIES

ALLEGATIONS BY UNITED STATES ‘‘ HE ARSA Y CH ARGES ’ ’ WASHINGTON, April 18. Argentina’s Foreign Secretary, Senor Juan Cooke, in a letter to the American Republics describes the United States’ Blue Book criticism as “a lamentable interference on Aigentina’s internal political affairs, and sums up the United States chaiges as “hearsay, old allegations, and exaggerated half-truths.” Senor Cooke conceded that Argentinians had, and perhaps still have, totalitarian sympathies, but said so had citizens in every country in the world. He admitted that Argentina’s policy of neutrality may have been wrong, but insisted that it corresponded well with the feeling ot Argentine people. If Argentine upholders of their nation’s neutrality must be judged guilty of conniving against the interests of the United Nations, so must the North American isolationists. Senor Cooke said there were Gelman spies in Argentine just as in the United States, and referred to the operations of the I. G. Farben Trust “which penetrated all circles of the United States in the direct service of Nazism.” Senor Cooke instanced the recent free elections in a denial of allegations of Argentina’s totalitarian regime. He said it was absurd to prolong the controversy with the United States and hoped for an early restoration of the policy of good neighbourliness the late President Roosevelt gave the world. Senor Cooke replying to specific Blue Book charges said Argentina had taken all necessary steps to liquidate property belonging to persons whose activities constitute a menace to the United Nations’ 1 war effort or to peace. There were no longer in Argentina German or Japanese schools teaching principles opposed to the ideals of freedom nor Japanese publishing houses upholding Nazi or Fascist doctrines. Argentina contained no individuals or groups capable of reviving totalitarian tendencies.

Seeking wages readjustment, dockers and shipping clerks struck in Paris, Le Havre, Bordeaux, and Marseilles.—Paris, April 18.