NAVAL POWER IN MEDITERRANEAN

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28491, 22 January 1958, Page 11

NAVAL POWER IN MEDITERRANEAN

“Russian Counter To U.S. Fleet”

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, January 21. Moscow was believed to be creating a new Mediterranean naval squadron—the first in Soviet history—in an attempt to neutralise the political impact of the powerful United States 6th Fleet in the Middle East, a correspondent for the North American Newspaper Alliance reported today.

“The recent extreme Communist touchiness about Western military and civilian air flights near Albania is almost certainly due to the expansion of the Soviet naval base at Saseno, at the ‘neck’ of the Adriatic, according to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation officers.

“Expert Allied naval opinion here is that the Russians have undertaken a major expansion of the Saseno base.

“It may already be the largest, most heavily fortified submarine facility anywhere in the Mediterranean,” said the correspondent.

A strong suspicion also existed that Syria had given Russia permission to establish a modern naval base at its port of Latakia, not far from the Turkish frontier, the dispatch said. It added that the Soviet aim appeared to be twofold.

A cold war “harassment’* of the American naval force. A demonstration for the benefit of the Arab States that the United States fleet would not go unassaulted in the event of an outbreak of hostilities in the area.