USE OF AID AS LEVER

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29735, 31 January 1962, Page 9

USE OF AID AS LEVER

Opposition By

Bowles

(N Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Jan. 29

President Kennedy's special adviser on Asia, Africa and Latin America, Mr Chester Bowles said last night he was opposed to withholding aid funds from Latin American countries which refused to take a strong stand against Cuba.

Asked what he thought about such a scheme in a television interview, Mr Bowles replied: “On trying to use the Alliance for Progress as a lever to get people to see things our way politically ... I strongly believe personally that we ought never to try to direct other people. We can’t run the world and we shouldn't try... “I would not like to see us going around using our money to bribe others or punish others. This doesn't make sense to me.”

Havana reports said the Government had warned the Cuban people they were entering “an era of hard work and sacrifices” when all goods might have to be rationed.

The warning came from the Minister of Industry and Commerce (Mr Ernesto Guevara) in a nationwide radio and television speech in which he announced the immediate start of petrol rationing. Medicine might also be rationed, he said. Mr Guevara said the worst drought in 40 years meant that Cuban sugar production In 1962 might be as low as 5.500.000 metric tons, about 500.000 tons less than normal.