Guessing and Steaming

Biggest South American guessing game last week was based on the questions: Is Dictator German Busch a fascist or a democratic dictator? Will Bolivia join the Anti-Comintern Pact? First guesses from Rome and Tokyo looked rosy for fascists.

In Tokyo, up popped Kovichi Seito, hitherto unheard of Japanese brother-in-law of Dictator Busch. Guessed Seito: Bolivia will soon join the Anti-Comintern Pact. Guessed Bolivian Minister Dr. Antonio Campero Arce in Rome: Bolivia is a totalitarian State, it will soon join the Pact. Kept guessing in Washington, U. S. observers guessed hardest about Bolivia's oil barter deal with Germany, gasped at a rumor that an ex-German staff officer in Bolivia swung it.

Bolivian Legation officials in Washington were not guessing but steaming. One indignant member of the Legation rebutted:

1. Bolivia join the Pact?--"Utterly fantastic!"

2. Oil barter deal with Germany?--"Absolutely untrue!"

3. German staff officer in Bolivia?--"We had our experience with German officers in the Chaco. We sent them home."

4. Busch decorated by Hitler?--"The President has received ten or twelve decorations from other Governments. One of them may be German."

5. Brother-in-law Kovichi Seito?--"His ideas are of no significance whatever." Seito, it was explained, was a Japanese exporter in Bolivia who ran away with Busch's sister, now living in Bolivia.

While Bolivians were protesting, some thought too much, fascists were getting rough handling in other South American lands. Hot spots were Argentina and Chile.

> Irate ever since disclosures of an alleged Nazi plot to annex arid, sheep-raising Patagonia, Argentine President Dr. Roberto Ortiz decreed the dissolution of the local Nazi Party, gave Italian Fascists, Spanish Falangists, all other foreign-directed political groups 90 days to subscribe to "democratic principles" or get out.

> In Chile, the Popular Front Government ordered deported Hans Voigt Schmidt, German State Railroads tourist agent in Santiago. His slip: receiving 100,000 anti-Jewish leaflets. Police charged German Railroads was planning a press and radio campaign to stir up political unrest and hatred of Chile's Jews.

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