SOVIET ATOM SHIP

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28414, 22 October 1957, Page 13

SOVIET ATOM SHIP

LONDON. October 21. Russia intended to bolster her propaganda success with the earth satellite by launching the world’s first atom-powered surface ship this year, the “Daily Mail” reported today. The newspaper said British experts believed that if the Soviet plans went without a hitch, the ship would be cruising before the satellite came down.

The report said: ‘‘The atom ship is the 16.000-ton Lenin, an icebreaker. which has been building at Leningrad for a little more than a year.

‘‘Work is now going on day and night.

“Welders have finished the hull, atom engineers have installed much of the machinery—capable of driving the Lenin at 18 knots — and artists are to work on lavish interior decorations.” said the article.

Russia was believed to have at least a year’s lead over America and Britain in atomic-powered surface craft, the “Daily Mail” said.

Last night the Saudi Arabian Radio in Mecca broadcast a report that Turkey and Syria had accepted an offer by King Saud of Saudi Arabia to mediate in the border crisis.

Later, however, the report was denied by Damascus Radio. The Mecca report has not yet been officially confirmed from any source.

The “Daily Telegraph” correspondent in Cairo reported today that the Egyptian warships which had been visiting Syria had returned to their home base. The announcement of the return, by an official spokesman, came 24 hours after an announcement by the same spokesman that the warships would remain in Syrian waters until further notice.

No explanation of the recall was given.

The force was believed to consist of a frigate and a destroyer, with perhaps a troopship, the “Daily Telegraph” said. In London, the ‘‘Daily Express” and the “Daily Mail” today published dispatches from their correspondents on the troubled border.

Both correspondents reported seeing Syrian and Turkish troops in positions near the border and moving in the frontier area.

In Syria. “People's Army" volunteers. including girls and old women, were training and handling the weapons with which they had been issued.

The “News Chronicle” said Syria was not taking the “crisis” as seriously as was the outside world.

The “Daily Mail” correspondent quoted Syrian officials as saying—unofficially: “We don’t believe Turkey would ever attack us.”

In Syria the attitude was that the United States was the villain and that Syria was merely caught up in a power-struggle between the Big Powers.

Syria is one of the topics on the agenda for a three-days meeting of delegates from 18 nations who begin their meeting in Cairo today to prepare for an AfricanAsian solidarity committee meeting in December.

Russia’s line at this meetinc could oe deduced from today’s (“Pravda” article reiterating the [argument contained in last week’s Soviet statement that the United (States had hatched a plot with Turkey to attack Syria.