Moscow Outbids West In Somalia

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30288, 14 November 1963, Page 17

Moscow Outbids West In Somalia

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyrtght) WASHINGTON, November 12. Somalia has informed the United States that it will accept a Soviet arms offer and has no use for a military aid from the West, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

Administration officials said that the decision made Somalia the principal Soviet-lean-ing country in Africa. Independent since June, 1960, Somalia is located on the easternmost part of Africa. The officials said that they were less disturbed by the Soviet weapons that would reach Somalia, than by the fact that the country’s capital, Mogadishu, was teeming

with Communist Bloc advisers.

The city, they said, appeared to have become a stepping stone for Soviet ambitions on the African continent. Somalia's disclosure came after months of talks between the United States Ambassador (Mr Horace Torbert) and the Somali Government. Mr Torbet tried to convince the Somalis that a Western offer was more attractive than the Soviet proposal. The United States, Italy, and West Germany proposed a package military-assistance programme of 18,000.000 dollars consisting mainly of small arms. Moscow offered 30.000.000 dollars in arms. The Somalis ar believed to have asked for more than the West offered, and questioned the feasibility of arms coming from three countries The Soviet Union is building a modern air base in Somalia. It is considered by Washington experts to be much larger than justified by Somali needs. Experts in Washington are concerned over these new Soviet inroads,' but point to previous Soviet failures on Africa’s west coast, especially in Guinea The West Africans became disillusioned with Soviet help, and the same could happen in Somalia, officials predicted