FUTURE OF CUBA

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29278, 9 August 1960, Page 13

FUTURE OF CUBA

U.K. Papers Speculate (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, August 8. Two British newspapers, discussing Dr. Fidel Castro's confiscation of United States property in Cuba, today wondered what the future had in store for Cuba. “The Times” suggested that when the flow of American dollars and spare parts dried up, Cuba might find the telephone exchanges and sugar mills "can be expensive acquisitions:” and the “Daily Telegraph” asked how long Cuba, “with its new links,” could remain solvent and independent. "The Times said: “For Washington, uncomfortably aware of Dr. Castro's appeal in Latin America, the Cuban -dilemma is deepened. “To take arms against a sea of troubles? Probably nothing short of a Cuban seizure of the Guatanamo naval base, or the creation of a Russian base on the island, would provoke the Americans to such brinkmanship. “Or to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? “With the meeting of American Foreign Ministers in Costa Rica only a week away, summoned by the Organisation of American States to consider the question of Cuban-American relations, patient suffering combined with diplomatic action seems the only possible course just now. “What happens next year is another matter. When the flow of American dollars and spare parts dries up, Cuba may find that telephone exchanges and sugar mills can be expensive acquisitions.” “The Times” said. The “Daily Telegraph” said: "The arrangements which make Dr. Castro's Government in form at any rate an economic satellite of Russia and China have been cemented with missions from both countries to Havana. “There seems scarcely no chance that the Castro Government can avoid acknowledging before long an ideological as well as a practical dependence on communism.

“Overtly the next stage in this quarrel will open at the meeting of the Organisation of American States later this month. "As the United States has shown in its memorandum, there will be little difficulty there in demonstrating the un-American activities of Cuba’s revolution. They are indeed well enough known. “But the real test will be in Cuba itself. How long can the Government, with its new links remain both solvent and independent? If it loses independence and its leader, how long can it exist at all?” the “Daily Telegraph" asked.