Welles Lights Up

The icy patience of tall, cool Sumner Welles suddenly ran out. For months the State Department had politely nudged the governments of Argentina and Chile, reminding them of hemispheric unity. But Argentina, under isolationist President Ramon S. Castillo, stayed stubbornly unregenerate. And Chile, under veteran politico President Juan Antonio Rios, kept coy. They, alone of all the Americas, refused to break relations with the Axis.

Embarrassing to the State Department were the reactions of other South American countries, which began to ask questions. Why should Chile continue to receive U.S. supplies, as she did? Propaganda even spread that she was getting more than her share. Was this the way countries which had followed the U.S. foreign policy were to be rewarded? So last week Under Secretary of State Welles, architect of the Good Neighbor policy, lighted up with a hard, angry glow.

He said that Argentina and Chile were being used by Axis agents "as a base for hostile activities against their neighbors." Axis espionage had resulted in the sinking of neighbors' ships. Mr. Welles could not believe that this would go on much longer, that Argentina and Chile would permit their neighbors to "be stabbed in the back" by those agents now operating under their protection.

Argentina and Chile made immediate, angry protests to Washington. But in rebellious Argentina, when the Chamber of Deputies last fortnight voted a resolution demanding a break with the Axis (TIME, Oct. 12), Nicolas Repetto, Socialist Party leader, rapped out that the Government's "benevolent tolerance" toward the Nazis in their midst "gives irrefutable basis to the accusations."

There were other bases for the accusations. Recently the Cuban Government arrested an Axis agent who confessed that he had been in direct radio contact with submarines operating in the Caribbean and Middle Atlantic. He also admitted contact with agents in Chile.

In Chile President Rios, who was packing his bags for a State visit to the U.S., announced that he had postponed his trip. But it was not likely that the State Department or the White House would try to diffuse Mr. Welles's pointed remarks. A shadowy situation needed clearing up. Mr. Welles had thrown a bright light on it.

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