031774 Argentina, Hoping to Double Her Population

By JONATHAN KANDELL

Special to The New York times (of course)

BUENOS AIRES, March 16As part of an effort to double Argentina's population to 50 million by the end of this century, the Government has Issued a decree restricting the sale of contraceptive pills.

The decree, issued earlier this month by the Ministry of Health in the name of President Juan Domingo Per6n, accused "non-Argentine interests" of "encouraging birth control, perverting the fundamental maternal role of women, and leading youths astray from their natural duties.

Oral contraceptives will now be sold only with a prescription signed by three medical authorities. The dissemination of birth-control information is prohibited and an educational campaign will publicize "the dangers to people who submit to contraceptive methods and practices."

According to the decree, further measures to stimulate population growth will be taken in 90 days based on "an ample study of the problem."

The vision of a large and powerful Argentina has always attracted General Peron and his more nationalistic followers who consider the country: whose area roughly matches that of India, to be underpopulated with only 25 million inhabitants.

During his first period In power, from 1946 to 1955, President Peron sought to increase the population rapidly by attracting more than a million Italian immigrants and large numbers of Spaniards.

In a recent speech, he suggested that Argentina would be willing to accept another large immigration, particularly If unemployment increases in Europe.

Critics have noted, however, that in their election campaign platform last year the Peronists stressed the fact that more than a million people were unemployed in Argentina. There has not yet been a dramatic rise in employment.

General Peron and his followers note that Argentina's population growth rate of 1.4 per cent a year is substantially lower that the over-all Latin-American rate of 2.7 per cent.,

Some Peronists have also raised the specter of an economically powerful Brazil, with a population of more than 200 million by the end of the century, threatening Argentina.

Las Bases, the magazine most closely Identified with General Peron, who is mentioned as a contributing editor in the masthead, notes in Its latest issue that "when the year 2000 Is at hand, we will have overpopulated neighbors with great food problems, and we, on the contrary, will have three million square kilometers of land, practically unpopulated."

"We will not have the arms to work this immense and rich territory," it warns, "and if we do not do it there will be others who will."

The magazine also attacks the suggestion that social and economic conditions should he improved before the population is increased.

"We will never 'have these ideal conditions if we do not have the men who can contribute to production," the magazine declares. "First we must have active men and for that it is necessary that this generation discard its egotisms and be generous in procreating."

"We must start from the Basis that the principal work of a woman is to have children," adds the magazine, which calls Itself the official publication of the Peronist movement.

Both Las Bases and the decree released by the Health Ministry assert that a foreign foundation is funneling money into Argentina "to sterilize its women" through family-plan programs.

Government officials reached for comment declined to give the name of the foundation or its nationality. Spokesmen for the United States Embassy and several European diplomatic missions said they knew of no birth-control programs sponsored here by foundations based in their countries.