From the High Wire

Chile's old guard had long regarded ever-smiling President Gabriel Gonzylez Videla as a playboy. They made pointed remarks about his summer custom of riding a bicycle in shorts, sniggered discreetly when he tumbled into the river while boating. But last week the tune changed. Even rightist papers ran friendly stories, and printed such folksy notes as an item regarding his visit to the movies with his handsome, blonde wife Rosa and teen-age daughters Silvia and Rosa. The reason for this new friendliness: Gonzylez had turned his back on the Communists.

Gonzylez owed a debt to the Commies for their crucial support in last October's election. He paid it by giving them three Cabinet posts, their first in South America; other posts went to the right-wing landowner Liberals and his own middle-of-the-road Radicals. But even as clever a performer as Gonzylez found it difficult to walk this political tightrope with the comrades on his shoulders. Last month, he eased them out of the act, and formed a new Cabinet dominated by his own party.

Last week Gonzylez went a step farther by making his first public criticism of the Communists. The occasion was his veto of the reactionary Farm Bill (TIME, March 10) which would have virtually banned union organization of the landless campesinos. The Communists wanted a veto, but they wanted a louder one than the President gave. Gonzylez told a protesting Communist delegation: "I am in profound disagreement with the Communists. . . . The Communists cannot separate me from the people."

Gonzylez' separation from the Commies will not solve all his problems. He must still 1) find an acceptable substitute for the vetoed Farm Bill; 2) settle the still unratified trade treaty with Argentina which the Communists favored while they were in the Cabinet; 3) wangle more loans from Washington, where his anti-Communist stand will do no harm.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.