Friendly Visit

In an endless column, several hundred taxis churred past the gleaming Montevideo office building that houses the U.S. Embassy. No others (except for emergency calls) were on the streets. In this reproachful fashion, Monte cabbies protested last week against the beating of a fellow driver by U.S. sailors.

Chauffeur Teodoro Perez was the complainant. During last month's inauguration of President Tomas Berreta, he picked up three U.S. bluejackets from the good-will U.S. naval squadron led by the cruiser Fresno. The sailormen slugged him and robbed him.

Sailors' scuffles are a familiar story in many a port, and in Latin America they have often helped feed anti-U.S. feeling. The Perez story was another case of a friendly visit marred by hoodlums in uniform. Said a Monte sidewalk philosopher: "It's a pity these sailors should have picked on Uruguay, the only country in South America that really likes the U.S."

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