Good Neighbor Trouble

U.S. diplomats in South America kept the cables hot. But at least one was caught off guard. When Chile seemed on the point of welcoming Argentina's new anti-U.S. government, the State Department frantically tried to get in touch with its Chilean Embassy. But sad-eyed Ambassador Claude G. Bowers, 65, who has not bothered to perfect his Spanish during eleven years as a diplomat in Spain and South America, could not be reached.* He was off in the country, relaxing on a long, leisurely weekend.

South of Panama last week, Yanqui prestige fell steadily. In spite of chill disapproval from the U.S., General Farrell's militarist, Argentina-first government basked and blustered in official recognition from Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay. The U.S. Good Neighbor policy was not yet in acute danger. But proud Argentina, traditionally jealous of the U.S., had made a beginning on a small Good Neighbor policy of her own (see p. 40).

* When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Ambassador Bowers, then accredited to Madrid, was found sunning himself on the beaches at Fuenterrabia (TIME, Aug. 3, 1936).

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