Rumania Shows Independence

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30807, 20 July 1965, Page 5

Rumania Shows Independence

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BUCHAREST, July 19. Evidence of Rumania’s independence has set the tone for the fourth Rumanian Communist Party congress opening today.

The Congress is expected to give full rein to the country’s new mood of nationalism by reaffirming its independence in Communist Bloc affairs and its neutrality in the Chinese-Soviet dispute. When the Russian delegates headed by the Communist Party leader, Mr Leonid Brezhnev, drove into Bucharest yesterday they saw only Rumanian flags. There were no portraits of block leaders—not even Lenin. And instead of Communist marching songs the old war-time hit “Down Mexico Way” drifted across Congress square tonight as citizens of Bucharest took life easy in open-air cafes in the sweltering Balkan summer heat. Strict impartiality governs the Rumanian reporting of the arrival of the Soviet and

Chinese delegations. Both get the same space in the party paper. The Chinese delegation, headed by the party general secretary, Mr Hsiao Ping, is strong but of lesser calibre than the Soviet Union's. The congress will open with a report by the 47-year-old Rumanian party leader. Mr Nicolae Ceausescu —youngest leader in the Communist Bloc and as anti-Staiinist as Tito. His report is due to cover the fateful last five years since the third congress in June, 1960, which first exposed the Chinese-Soviet conflict and led to Rumania's bid for autonomy. The congress is open to the press for all public sessions, unlike 1960 when the press were excluded from all meetings.