“CUBA MOVING TOWARDS EAST"

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29224, 7 June 1960, Page 13

“CUBA MOVING TOWARDS EAST"

Big Trade Pact With China Expected (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, June 6. Cuba was reported to be planning a major trade agreement with China and diplomatic recognition of the Peking regime, according to the “New York Times” today. In addition, the newspaper said, there were reports that the Prime Minister of China, Mr Chou En-lai, had been invited to visit Cuba as part of the Castro Government’s move for closer relations with the Communist Bloc.

The newspaper’s Havana correspondent said that diplomatic quarters in Havana believed that formal relations with China would be established before July 26, the seventh anniversary of the founding of the Revolutionary Party formed by Dr. Fidel Castro. It was also thought that July 26 would be the date of the visit of the Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Khrushchev, whose acceptance of the Cuban Government’s invitation was announced in Moscow last week.

The correspondent said Mr Chou was also expected on that date if the invitation was formally extended and accepted. Quoting sugar industry circles, the correspondent said it was believed a major sale would be made to China, accompanied by other commercial agreements. Sugar experts believed the agreement would cover the sale of up to half a million tons—the extent of Cuba’s present reserves after disposal of this year’s crop. Already this year China had bought 130.000 tons of Cuban sugar for cash.

United States officials were openly concerned yesterday about what they termed antiAmerican pro-Soviet trends in Cuba.

Developments in the last 48 hours left a strong impression in the State Department that the Government in Havana was determined to push its “antiYankee” campaign and to move even closer to the Communist bloc. American officials claimed today that the State Department’s new protest to Cuba against an “intense official campaign of slander” waged by Dr. Castro had no connexion with the announcement last Friday that Mr Khrushchev had accepted an invitation to visit Havana in the near future.

Nevertheless, the invitation and its acceptance were viewed as defiant gestures which fitted into Cuba's anti-American policy and Mr Khrushchev’s bid to discredit President Eisenhower and the United States after the summit collapse. The prospect, in the opinion of observers, was for rising ten-

sion between the United States and Cuba and a big increase in Soviet attempts to get a firm footing on Caribbean territory, 100 miles from the United States.

In its Note yesterday—rejected later by the Cuban Government—the State Department said that statements made by Dr. Castro and other Cuban officials sought to sow distrust and animosity against the United States.