835.918/121: Telegram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Armour) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:13 p.m.]
125. Chief of Presidential Secretariat gave extraordinary interview yesterday to press correspondents seeking to justify and explain recent decree establishing control of press. Declarations abound in sophistries and blandishments toward press representatives in effort to win their good-will. With attempted irony speaker referred to natural satisfaction felt that such a prominent statesman as Secretary [Page 394] Hull should have manifested his intention to study carefully this decree despite his preoccupation with difficult war and internal problems. He then refers to similar measures taken by Brazil “a democratic country where the press is performing a task that we aspire to imitate”.
This interview is interpreted as another move by Presidential Secretariat to keep press matters in its own hands. It is understood that discussions are still proceeding in governmental circles and that press employees statute sponsored by Colonel Peron and intended to give him control of press through this indirect means may be issued soon.