Heil Higinio

In San Roque, quiet residential quarter of Paraguay's capital, Asuncion, there was an atmosphere of uncommon agitation last week. Ragged newsboys chewing wild oranges filled the streets, shouting thickly "Votacion National!" Huge posters announced the Revolution Nacionalista Paraguaya. Beswastikaed cops patrolled the streets. To the Colegio Aleman continually went little groups of three or four ragged, sometimes barefoot, men, solicitously escorted by well-dressed attendants who passed them inside and went forth again to seek other groups. The Colegio Aleman is one of ten electoral centers in San Roque, and in Paraguay an election is going on.

Even Germany has never seen an election with such a comic-opera touch. Nazi-copying Dictator-President Higinio Morinigo reluctantly yielded to a combination of forces and decided to go through the motions of an election for the presidential term of 1943-48. He set up a candidate--himself--and decreed an electoral period from Jan. 16 to Feb. 14. He promised that the elections would not fall into the errors of the so-called "free-election system." Just to make sure, he decreed "[It is] strictly forbidden to agitate public opinion or divide the citizens with party appeals or sectarian promises." His Minister of the Interior and Police Chief were appointed to issue voting credentials. First results, as glowingly tabulated by the Government newspaper El Paraguayo: of 280,000 eligible male voters, "more than 140,000 . . . have given their votes in anticipation to General Morinigo."

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