Elections?

President Edelmiro Farrell, front man for Argentina's militarists, stood up before the annual Army & Navy banquet last week and growled a reluctant concession. He solemnly promised to call a presidential election "before the end of the year."

Farrell's announcement may have averted a civil war in Argentina, whose political temperature has recently neared the boiling point. But critics noted the delay. Allowing three months for campaigning, the elections would come in February or March. By then, the militarists' chances might be better. They could hardly be worse than they are at present.

Last week the Radical (Centrist) Party, Argentina's biggest, landed a haymaker. From all over the country, delegates converged upon Nueve de Julio, 200 miles from Buenos Aires. Party conventions had long been forbidden, but Police Chief Filomeno Velazco's strong men did not interfere with this one. Admiral Alberto Teisaire, Acting Minister of the Interior, had assured Big Boss Juan Peron that the Radicals would support, or at least not oppose, the Government. The Admiral's own brother, Eduardo, was one of the leaders.

Barrack-Room Blandishments. Peron had wooed the Radical leaders with barrack-room blandishments. Once he got control of their rusty but still-effective party machinery, he hoped to outsmart his enemies, become "elected" president of Argentina.

The delegates sat down at banquet tables. When speeches began, not a voice spoke up for the militarists. Instead came a barrage of bitter denunciations. Leader after leader lambasted Peron and his Government. The worst blow came from Brother Eduardo Teisaire, who cried: "There are no Argentines in Government House."

Peron bellowed defiance. He threatened the U.S., which was increasingly hostile, with an Argentine-Russian alignment. He threatened the Argentine people with civil war and social revolution. "I have no fear of civil war," he told a visiting Cuban publisher. "... I have an army of 100,000 . . . and 4,000,000 workers armed with clubs. . . ."

Calling the editors of leading newspapers into his office, he told them bluntly: "As of midnight Wednesday, freedom of the press in Argentina is through." Foreign correspondents could still send out their reports, but they might not be reprinted in Argentina. Shortly after, he added strategy to defiance. The promised election might mollify some of his enemies. And in eight months, anything could happen.

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