ARGENTINA: Snuggle

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President Edelmiro Farrell looked like the morning after a hard night. Red-eyed from sleepless bickering with his fellow militarists, he faced the Argentine press. "Gentlemen," he snapped, "a decision has been reached. In a few minutes you will get a document. That's all."

Herded into the next room, the newsmen got the same short shrift from equally red-eyed Presidential Secretary Colonel Gregorio Tauber. "Gentlemen," he said, "the President and his ministers have made a decision which . . . joins the nation with her sister nations of America. . . . We have taken the grave resolution of declaring war on the Axis. Good day."

Even democratic Argentines, who had waited long to hear this grudgingly issued news, showed little enthusiasm. No whistles blew; no sirens screamed. Nor were police needed to protect the Axis embassies (though the U.S. and British embassies were guarded against demonstrations). The Plaza de Mayo, where Buenos Aires rallies at moments of national crisis, was jampacked—with pigeons.

The Argentine people had always been predominantly pro-Ally, but many of them considered it unsportsmanlike to enter the war so late against such nearly beaten enemies. The motives of the unpopular military Government were obvious to all: by declaring war and meeting the other requirements laid down at the Mexico City Conference, the regime might snuggle again in the bosom of hemisphere harmony. Thus relieved of pressure from abroad, it might hold phony elections (even "elect" Strongman Perón to the Presidency), stay in power indefinitely.