Relaxed Rumors

After a decade of hard fighting, Juan Peron has routed most of his enemies, and the result has been obvious of late in the changed atmosphere of Argentine politics. No longer so bitter against those who have opposed him, the Strongman seems 100% sure of himself, so sure that at times he appears to have only a relaxed interest in problems of state. But such unwonted easiness and good feeling on the part of their long-embattled President has evidently set some Argentines to wondering.

For six months persistent rumors have been making the rounds of Buenos Aires and cropping up abroad that Peron is ill. One version: the President has a brain tumor, plans to go to the famed Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minn, in the near future for an operation. Another: he has an unidentified nervous disorder accompanied by fainting spells.

Last week, for the first time, the government took official note of the rumors. A presidential palace representative quietly asked the morning newspaper Clarin to publish a story reporting that "in the U.S. also there exists a mania for attributing bad health to [President] Eisenhower." The story pointed out that in both the U.S. and Great Britain there are constant rumors that Eisenhower and Churchill are sick, but these should be dismissed as the inventions of political enemies.

What none of the Buenos Aires rumors quite explained was Peron's current taste in off-hours relaxation; piloting a motorboat at 70 m.p.h. on the River Plate, driving racing cars and motorcycles, fencing with Foreign Minister Jeronimo Remorino, dancing all evening with guests at his Olivos estate, which he recently turned over as a clubhouse for the Buenos Aires' High School Girls' Union.

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