Coup d'etat?

Recent events in Chile were not a little exciting.

Parliamentarians were beaming and slapping one another's backs, because they had succeeded in having passed a bill to grant themselves salaries, when there appeared upon the threshold of the Senate a few irate Army officers who loudly protested that they and the working class had been neglected.

President Allesandri sent for the officers and, instead of having them shot or arrested, he invited them to write a petition of their wants. The officers asked for:

1) Formation of a non-political Cabinet.

2) Veto of the bill providing salaries to legislators.

3) Passage of the budget law.

4) Payment of public employes. (They have, allegedly, not been paid for months).

5) Adoption of measures, now before Congress, for the working class.

The President accepted the petition; so did the Senate; so did the

Chamber of Deputies; so did the Cabinet, which was prompt to resign. A new Cabinet was formed, non-political in nature, pledged to institute the reforms mentioned in the petition. General Luis Altamarino headed the Cabinet taking the portfolio of Minister of the Interior. Other ministers: Minister of Foreign Affairs: Emiliano Figueroa, onetime Ambassador to Argentina. Justice and Instruction: Gregorio Amunategui, Rector of the University of Chile. War: General Bennett. Public Works: Angel Guarello, onetime Minister of Justice and at present the most prominent Democrat in the country. Thus did the Army officers accomplish by the pen what is usually undertaken in Latin America by the sword--a coup d'etat. Not only this, they apparently received the plaudits of vast sections of the Chilean populace.