MIDDLE EAST POLICY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27858, 5 January 1956, Page 13

MIDDLE EAST POLICY

Major U.S. Review Reported EFFECT OF SOVIET INFILTRATION

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) WASHINGTON, January 3. The United States Government is reported today to have launched a major review of policies and trends in the Middle East and Asia to map ways of checking Soviet diplomatic infiltration and neutralist activities, said to be on the increase there.

The revfew coincides with the new debate in London over British policies in the Middle East, particularly over the export of surplus war material to Egypt and suggestions that a new approach should be made to enlist Soviet help in bringing peace to the area. Two of the key United States officials in the Middle East and Asia are to return to Washington within the next 10 days to join in the consultations'with the National Security Council. the United States top security and foreign policy planning group. They are Mr Henry Byroade. American Ambassador to Cairo, and Mr John Sherman Cooper, United States Ambassador to India. A Reuter correspondent says that Mr Byroade. will report to Mr Dulles, the , Secretary of State, and to the National Security Council on Egypt’s attitude in the light of the stepped-up Soviet diplomatic and economic offensive in the Middle East. Mr Byroade’s views are expected to weigh heavily with the Eisenhower Administration leaders in view of the sudden fears that last-minute complications in the negotiations for a World Bank loan might lead Egypt to accept Soviet offers to help in the construction of the high dam at Assouan on the Nile, says the correspondent. There is increasing speculation, the correspondent adds, that Mr Cooper will advise on arrangements- for a visit to India which Mr Dulles is reported to be planning to make after he attends the South-east Asian Treaty Organisation meeting in Karachi next March. There are two immediate issues on which Mr Coopei' will be asked to advise, says the correspondent. They are: (1) India’s resentment over a joint communique by Mr Dulles and the Portuguese Foreign Minister describing Goa as a “province” of Portugal. (2) The recent Indian tour of the Soviet leaders who are said to have fostered a growth of the neutralist spirit in India as well as scoring impressive propaganda gains in their attacks on the West.