ATTEMPTED GABON COUP

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30390, 14 March 1964, Page 16

ATTEMPTED GABON COUP

U.S. Complicity Rumoured

(N.Z.P.A .-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, Mar. 11. The State Department said today the United States had been consulting France about rumours circulating in Gabon that Americans were behind the attempted coup against President Leon Mba of Gabon last month. It declined to comment publicly on the source of the rumours, but United States Government sources said the rumours were Frenchinspired—although not from official French sources. A Government spokesman told a news conference the consultations with France took place at the Foreign Ministry in Paris, but he said the United States made no protest and did not ask any specific action of the French Government. The spokesman made the disclosure of the FrenchAmerican consultations when he was asked about reports that Frenchmen might have been behind an attack on the United States Embassy in Libreville, capital of Gabon, last Sunday. The Embassy was damaged by a shotgun blast, and a small explosive device, but no-one was injured. The spokesman said that two Europeans were seen leaving the scene afterwards, and Gabonese authorities and French military authorities were investigating. But it was not known whether the two Europeans were French or not.