CAUTIOUS STEPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24633, 12 July 1943, Page 2

CAUTIOUS STEPS

"Any change in the Republic's attitude will probably be made with cautious steps," was a comment passed on the possibility of Argentina abandoning neutrality in favour of supporting the United Nations as a result of the forcible change of Government early last month. The new Foreign Minister has sent a message to the organisation concerned with the defence of the Western Hemisphere, stating that his country is studying co-operation in this problem. An Argentine delegate is attending a meeting of this committee for the first time. If. as has been suggested, these moves constitute the first steps toward an eventual break with the Axis, they are indeed cautious. The Government overthrown by the revolutionary movement was thoroughly unsatisfactory from the Allied viewpoint, but the question whether its successor will be appreciably more inclined to co-operate has not yet been answered. Hints of what isolation in stubborn neutrality could mean have been given the Republic from time to time. No delegation from Argentina was invited to the international food conference recently held in the United States. To a food producing and exporting country that omission should have been significant, though whether it would mean much to the military group now in control is questionable. The persistent refusal of the United States to give lend-lease aid in arms and material probably impresses its members more. But whatever turn foreign policy may eventually take, it is obviously not moving swiftly toward the break with the Axis which supporters of the United Nations in Argentina urge.