THE HEMISPHERE: Rolling Down to Rio

Argentina’s Foreign Minister Juan A. Bramuglia had saved his surprise for the last minute. Diplomats had expected that Argentine insistence on a veto would drag out the drafting of a hemispheric defense treaty at the Rio Conference that opens this week (TIME, Aug. 11). But just before boarding ship for Rio, Bramuglia made a startling announcement: his country would bow to majority decisions after all. Maybe there was more to Juan Perón’s current “peace offensive” than the pundits had thought.

Time for Fun. Though Brazilians in particular still thought they had better keep a sharp eye for new Argentine tricks, most delegates now looked forward to a smooth-sailing conference that would leave time for fun in Rio. But hospitable Rio was not quite ready for its guests.

At the Itamarati Palace itself, Foreign Office officials were too busy with details of President Truman’s September visit to have even settled the hour of the conference’s opening at the Quitandinha Hotel. Nor had places been found for delegates to stay. Secretary Marshall, with a Quitandinha suite, an office in the Rio Embassy and the promise of a house, was lucky. But delegates who looked forward to long Rio weekends would have to scramble for rooms.

The chief U.S. logistics problem was the supply of Scotch. It was scarce in Rio, even at $115 a case, and the U.S. Embassy staff had pooled its bottles to float Ambassador Bill Pawley’s projected cocktail party for 2,000. When one businessman bragged that he owned four bottles of Scotch, another cracked: “Don’t say that out loud or you’ll be giving a reception for Marshall.”

Visitor from the South. Famed Host Oswaldo Aranha, Brazil’s most accomplished diplomat, would not be a delegate —he could never have played second fiddle to his rival, Foreign Minister Raul Fernandes—but he was sure to get in diplomatic licks with small get-togethers for Marshall, Vandenberg and other bigwigs.

Smack in the midst of the first sessions, Eva Perón will show up in Rio. For her there will be more parties—at the presidential palace, at the town hall, at the Foreign Office. And would Argentina’s President Perón join his wife in Rio? Firmly the Brazilians said no. “He wouldn’t be fool enough to try to steal some of Truman’s thunder.”