President Salvador Allende of Chile was on Saturday (September 8) reported to be considering the possibility of calling a nationwide plebiscite to find out if he has majority support for the policies of his socialist Popular Unity Government. He remarked to journalists on Friday (Sept. 7) that the only solution for Chile was "Plebiscite or dialogue" - dialogue with the Christian Democrat party which holds the largest single block of seats in both houses of Congress.

And as Chile's political and economic crisis deepened there have been demonstrations for and against President Allende's Government.

One of the largest was on tuesday (September 4) when tens of thousands of Allende supporters paraded past the Moneda Presidential Palace to celebrate the third anniversary of President Allende's election.

The President thanked the "hundreds of thousands of marchers in a radio broadcast for their support and told them" we are facing a grave conspiracy. Our principal task is to defeat it".

On Wednesday (September 5) police fired volleys of tear gas shells to scatter demonstrators after two rival women's political rallies.

By far the larger was by women demanding Dr. Allende's resignation.