DIGNITY SLIGHTED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26081, 19 February 1946, Page 5

DIGNITY SLIGHTED

U.S. BLUE BOOK CHARGES ARGENTINE AND SPAIN PROTEST BUENOS AIRES, Feb. 17. Answering the charges contained in the American Blue Book (which denounced successive Argentine Governments for aiding the Axis), the Foreign Minister, Senor Juan Cooke, issued a statement that Argentina had complied faithfully with her international commitments under the Chapultepec Agreement and the United Nations Charter, and could prove before the other Latin American Governments and the other United Nations the efficiency and loyalty of her conduct. He added that the Blue Book constituted interference in Argentina’s internal affairs, and the timing of its publication indicated that the purpose was to influence the decision of the Argentine people at the elections on February 24. “The Blue Book’s unjustified, erroneous accusations are damaging to Argentina’s dignity,” he concluded. A Madrid message says that the Spanish Government has officially denied the references to Spain in the United States Blue Book. The statement denies that any plan existed for a three-way accord between Germany, the Argentine, and Spain, and declares that neither the special mission headed by Senor Eduardo Aunos nor any of its members made any representations to that effect in Buenos Aires, as asserted in the Blue Book. The statement was issued by the Foreign office the day after the Franco Cabinet had considered the charges. It added that Spain sent only merchandise to Argentina, all of which had to pass through the British navicert control.