FACTORIES FOR CUBA

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29265, 25 July 1960, Page 10

FACTORIES FOR CUBA

East German Aid Plans Press Association—Copyright) BERLIN, July 21. East Germany will build 15 complete factories for Cuba which will make the island independent of Western imports in several important fields, the East German news agency, A.D.N., reported tonight. The news agency said contracts for a brush factory, a factory for making preserving cans, and welding electrode plant had been signed. It said East Germany would also deliver two machine tool plants, which would make Cuba largely independent of American exports. Agreements had also been signed for radio and camera factories. These would produce East German receivers and cheap cameras under licence. In the next few years East Germany would export to Cuba machines and equipment for an electric motor and transformer factory, a wire cable plant, and a plant for processing china clay, A.D.N. said.

East Germany also would provide detailed technical assistance in design and by personnel sent to Cuba, the news agency said. A Moscow message says the Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Khrushchev, has promised Major Raul Castro, the Cuban Minister for the Armed Forces, all possible help to surmount the “economic blockade” of Cuba by the United States.

The promise is contained in an account of Monday’s talks between Mr Khrushchev and Major Castro—the brother of the Cuban Prime Minister (Dr. Fidel Castro)—published in the form of a communique in “Pravda.”