PERU: Lima Aftermath

From Arica, Chile, this week came a newspaperman's snapshot of the recent 8th Pan-American Conference at Lima, Peru, which did not coincide with the Conference's official picture.

New York Times Correspondent John W. White wrote: "The .. . Conference . . . functioned under a dictatorial regime of censorship, intimidation and spying such as never before seen in any Pan-American assembly. The Peruvian Government not only tried to control the newspaper correspondents, it censored and spied on the delegates. . . . Secret service men were found searching the offices of the American delegation. . . . The Government . . . violated diplomatic immunity and examined the delegates' mail. Many chauffeurs assigned to the delegates were known to be in the employ of the secret police. . . . [Peru] used at least two agents provocateurs in its campaign to intimidate visiting correspondents. . . . The censor cut the telephonic communication of Leland Stowe on two occasions while he was dictating his dispatch to the [New York] Herald Tribune."

"The [Peruvian] Government's sympathies are intensely fascist," continued Mr. White, "and the Government was furious at the disclosure of German and Italian activities against the Pan-American Conference. On the opening day . . . Lima appeared to be the site of a great Nazi rally. There were literally thousands of swastika flags all over the city. There were only three American flags on the main street, and one of them was at the American Consulate. Also there were more Italian and Japanese flags than there were flags of any South American countries. Throughout the Conference the Government-controlled newspapers used prominent headlines on everything the totalitarian leaders said against the Conference."