"Insane Barbarity"

Chainstore methods applied to bombing and revolution gave President Agustin P. Justo a warm, uneasy night & day last week. About 2:30 a. m. a small pineapple bomb exploded in the Buenos Aires suburb of Flores. drew police attention to a house from which several men fled wildly in all directions.

Little guessing what they would find, the police searched the house, discovered it was a bomb factory, seized 1,000 bombs and papers referring to a chain of newly opened restaurants which served a hearty meal for the trifling price of 20 centavos (5-c-). The restaurants proved to be "revolutionary cantonments." One, directly across from the Central Police Station, had especially big pineapples. Police eyes bulged at a letter mentioning that the chain-restaurant revolutionists planned "to kidnap the President of the Republic and other high officials."

A certain Lieut.-Colonel Atilio Cataneo presently confessed himself leader of the plot, but President Justo could not resist the temptation to blame everything on his political rivals, the Radical Personalista Party.

No. 1 Personalista is a man once called "the most popular man in Argentina," grizzled old Dr. Hipolito Irigoyen who was twice President (1916-22 and 1928-30), being overthrown in the middle of his second term by a military coup d'etat (TIME, Sept. 15, 1930). Between Dr. Irigoyen's first and second terms Argentina's President was his loyal henchman. Dr. Marcello T. de Alvear. Last week the Justo Government seized Dr. Irigoyen and Dr. de Alvear before anything was proved against them, rushed them aboard the despatch boat Golondrina and instructed it to make for Martin Garcia Island up the river from Buenos Aires. On this island President Irigoyen was interned after the coup in 1930. Last week the Government intimated that "Irigoyen and de Alvear will not be kept prisoners but will be invited to leave Argentina."

In a spirited manifesto to the Argentine populace President Justo's Cabinet declared, "The plot was entirely of a sanguinary, terrorist character . . . most disreputable . . . insidious conspiracy inconceivable insanity . . . most barbarous plot in our political history." Properly impressed, the Argentine Congress met in special session, voted 30 days of a "state of siege." Meanwhile the Ministry of Agriculture serenely forecast for the summer of 1932-33 (December through February) "the greatest, oat, barley and rye crops in all Argentine history."

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