New Cordiality

A new note of cordiality crept into U.S.-Argentine relations last week.

Out of their special Argentine plane stepped ten A.F.L. leaders. They had come to Buenos Aires at the invitation of Juan Peron and his General Confederation of Workers (C.G.T.). They also intended to "survey" Argentine labor and to find out whether C.G.T.'s 800,000 card holders (about 60% of all Argentine workers) would make suitable members for a projected Inter-American Federation of Labor. At week's end, though one delegate complained of being taken on "Russian tours," all were still hopeful that the Inter-American Federation could be formed, as a rival to the left-wing Latin-American Federation of Labor, which is affiliated with the C.I.O.

Plans & Turbines. An even more curious delegation (composed of U.S. military men, engineers and New Dealers) was also in Buenos Aires last week. Led by earnest, social-conscious Major General Royal B. Lord, U.S.A., retired, and onetime deputy chief of staff to General Eisenhower, the first 13 experts of the newly formed Inter-American Construction Corp. were already consulting with Peron's five-year planners. Their purpose: 1) to sell Argentina U.S. technical know-how for the plan's 69 hydroelectric projects, port, canal and irrigation works; 2) to sell for U.S. manufacturers $2 billion worth of turbines, trucks, tools and necessary materials. Among the I.A.C.C. experts are Engineers L. F. Harza and Theodore Knappen, who once worked for Standard Oil, and New Deal Economists Lauchlin Currie and Robert Nathan. The first fruits of the mission's counsel were announced last week: the purchase by the Argentine state railways of 90 diesel-electric locomotives for $20 million. Said Peron of the new technical collaboration: "This is a great historical event." It was the first time that such a gigantic project had been entrusted by Argentina to the U.S.

Welcome Addition. Next day Peron announced even more impressive news. With an eye cocked on Washington, where important U.S.-Latin American policy decisions are brewing, he announced that his Government would buy (not seize) the $100,000,000 assets of 60 Axis firms in Argentina. Said the State Department with new cordiality: "An important step ... a welcome addition to the measures already taken in respect to Nazi educational and other institutions."

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