A Medal for Eva

From Madrid, the correspondent of Maria Eva Duarte de Peron's newspaper, Democraticia, cabled an alluring preview. The reception for Argentina's First Lady, when she came to get the Order of Isabel La Catolica* from Dictator Francisco Franco, would be "the most brilliant ever organized for a foreign guest."

How then, argued pretty Senora Peron, could such hard-boiled advisers as Foreign Minister Juan Atilio Bramuglia caution her not to go to fascist Spain--simply because the U.S. (which husband Juan Peron is currently wooing) might view the trip dimly? Did not Bramuglia and those other Dutch uncles know about the plans? How she would fly in a special four-motored transport, escorted by two Argentine army planes, to the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha? How Spanish flyers would meet her there and take her to Madrid with full military honors?

The tug between egotism and patriotism was tough. For a time the energetic First Lady faltered. But to la Senora, long snubbed by stiff-necked, short-pedigreed Argentine society because she came from the wrong side of the tracks, the trip to Madrid seemed a chance to prove her social acceptability. Last week, she made up her mind: she would go. Democracia confidently reported that Senora Peron's visit would "revive the diplomatic life of Madrid."

* First awarded in 1815, under the patronage of St. Isabela, for loyalty in defense of Spanish possessions, now a general order of merit. Italy's Galeazzo Ciano also got it.

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