CHOU TO GO TO MOSCOW

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28160, 26 December 1956, Page 7

CHOU TO GO TO MOSCOW

Talks Early In January (Rec. 8 p.m.) PEKING, Dec. 24. The Chinese Prime Minister (Mr Chou En-lai) will visit Moscow early in January. It is presumed that he will fly to Moscow from Kabul, where he is due to end his six-weeks’ Asian tour about January 12. Observers in Peking believe that the main purposes of the visit will be to permit Mr Chou to inform the Russian leaders about Asian opinion on recent events in Eastern Europe, and to discuss Russian aid to China for the second five-year plan due to start in 1958. Mr Chou last visited Moscow in July, 1954, when he had three days of talks with the Soviet leaders while on his way home from the Geneva conference on Indo-China.

In Moscow, it is noted that the invitation is extended by the Soviet Government and not by the Communist Party. It is thought that the difficulties facing the world Communist movement. and the threat to its unity which recently appeared, are as much responsible for the invitation as the sudden deterioration in the world situation generally this autumn, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Mr Chou, who is expected to see Mr Nehru again on his return from the United States, will probably also give the Soviet leaders some account of the Indian Prime Minister’s talks with President Eisenhower. Failing a new summit conference—which the Soviet Government has said it wants —this would be the best way of learning the views of the top leaders of the neutral and Western worlds.

U.S. Reporter To Visit China

(Rec. 10 p.m.) HONG KONG, Dec. 24. Mr William Worthy, believed to be the first United States journalist to defy the State Department ban and try to visit Communist China, boarded a train in Hong Kong today to travel to Canton across the Communist frontier.

Many American correspondents were offered visas to visit Communist China last September, but the American State Department refused to make their passports valid for the journey on the ground that China was still holding American subjects in prison. Worthy said he was the correspondent of the Baltimore weqkly newspaper. “Afro-American.” He told reporters his visit to China had the full support of the American Civil Liberties Union.

No Police Leave In Ulster

(Rec. 9 p.m.) BELFAST, December 24. All Christmas leave for regular police in Northern Ireland has been cancelled.

They will be on hand to deal with anv further raids by the Irish Republican Army. Ten thousand men of the Snecial Constabulary will remain alerted throughout the holiday.

Quarry owners today handed in supplies of explosives which will be kept in military establishments from now