"Come Off It, Eva"

To the handpicked, specially-schooled trade unionists who serve abroad as Argentina's labor attaches, Eva Peron's slightest wish is a command. Last month the three labor attaches in London heard that the senora, who considers herself labor's great patron, would be delighted if three of the British workers who had helped build Argentina's new, 14,000-ton liner 17 de Octubre at Barrow-in-Furness could be present with their wives at the launching party.

Unluckily there was no elaborate launching party--just a cozy luncheon laid on by the Vickers-Armstrongs shipbuilding company's directors for their Argentine clients. The attaches demanded that the workers and their wives be invited anyway. The company replied that it had asked 47 people, mostly Argentines, and there was no room for more.

Attache Celestino Espina responded with a protesting speech at the luncheon table. "We regret that Vickers-Armstrongs have found it impossible to fulfill the wishes of the ship's godmother," he cried. "We would like to have been able to tell [the workers] that in Argentina all citizens enjoy the same rights." Last week, without bothering to consult their embassy seniors, the angry attaches continued their attack by making public in London a strong letter to Vickers-Armstrongs. It sounded more like a collective-bargaining blast than a diplomat's note. "We hope you will not consider [it] ill-mannered but merely . . . business," they wrote, "when we remind you of the competition . . . for shipbuilding orders."

Britain's press front-paged the news, with photographs of the three young Peronistas. When shipyard navvies read the story, they grunted: "Come off it, Eva," and dismissed the whole thing as "a political stunt" to influence current Anglo-Argentine meat negotiations. "If they're so eager for friendship with British workers," spat one dockside craftsman, "why do they make it so hard for us to get a bit of roast beef?"

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