Strategic Concession

Spruille Braden, U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, summoned the U.S. correspondents into his office. Pleased as an outsized Punch, he "announced that the Argentine Government had abolished all press censorship. Henceforth the newsmen might cable their stories direct, without subterfuge, delay or fear of retaliation. The correspondents were properly gratified, gave hard-hitting Braden much of the credit. Only one skeptic remarked: "Seems we heard this before."

As a further concession to local and foreign pressure, the Argentine Government had already announced that it would free its political prisoners. It actually freed some 265. Invited back from exile in Montevideo was Argentina's revered elder statesman, walrus-mustached Alfredo Palacios, a vigorous antifascist, to resume his old job as president of La Plata University.

The Government's change of heart was not taken too seriously in Argentina. Three hundred and nineteen influential business associations blasted at its militarists. Censorship had often been "abolished," but it always came back again. The Government often denied that it held political prisoners--while arresting more. Those released last week were only a fraction of the total, and the paralyzing "state of siege'' was still in force.

Few doubted that President Farrell and Vice President Peron wanted the support of the United Nations, and (as a price) were willing to restore to the Argentine people some of their democratic liberties. But spotted through their administration were other powerful politicians who felt that to yield would be fatal. Most notorious were Filomeno Velazco, chief of police, and General Juan Pistarini, Minister of Public Works. Tenaciously, they and their fellows clung to power, preventing the Government's concessions from having much effect. Said Pistarini (according to Vanguardia): "We shall relinquish the Government when frogs grow hair."

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