India Negotiates for Soviet Migs India’s hesitant negotiation for Soviet MIG jets under-

scores the Indian-Red Chinese border dispute. The Kremlin 18 months ago had informed India that an in- crease of Soviet aid was impossible over then-existent levels. Now, as a result of the aircraft negotiations, new collaboration is expected in steel, heavy machinery, manufactures, power, mining and oil. The jets which the Russians might supply could be used in possible clashes between the Indians and Red Chinese over a disputed 5 1,000 square miles of territory. That the USSR may indirectly aid India in opposing the Red Chinese has ramifications which as yet are not fully understood (for these implications see article on the &o-Soviet dispute).

Soviet Foreign Aid Outlined The Soviet Union is giving economic and technical

aid to 23 former colonial states in Asia, Africa and Latin America, according to I. V. Arkhipov, first deputy chair- man of the State Committee for Foreign Economic Re- lations of the Soviet Council of Ministers.

A&hipov, in an interview printed April 15 in the weekly magazine Za Rubezhom (Abroad), said 480 enterprises and projects are to be built in those countries. He said a considerable share of the Soviet aid was going to African states, and cited go projects in Egypt alone.

The Soviet official praised the altruistic motives of his country’s aid, contrasting these with the profits and other advantages sought by the “imperialist” countries. ~.&hipov said African nations know that Moscow is a “loyal, disinterested friend.”

A Washington Dispatch in late March said U.S. aid in at least 18 countries may be mixed to a degree with Communist aid. The agency for International Develop- ment (AID) reported this after a Congressional sub- committee said U.S. cement and other materials sent to Cambodia were bought by a local contractor who used them to build a Soviet-sponsored hospital.

AID disclosed circumstances which made it possible that U.S. and Communist aid may have been or may someday be mixed together in various ways in Afghan- istan, Israel, the UAB, Ceylon, Cyprus, Turkey, Guinea, Mali, Tunisia, Sudan, Indonesia, and Burma.

Yugoslavia Signs Trade Pact with U.S. Yugoslavia has signed a long-term dollar credit agree-

ment with the United States providing for the sale of $I O. 1 million worth of cotton and soybean meal during 1962, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced April 21.

Senate Votes No Aid to Communist Countries The U.S. Senate voted June 6 to cut off aid to all

Communist-ruled countries, including Poland and Yugoslavia, by a vote of 57-24 on an amendment to the $4.6 billion foreign aid bill. Secretary of State Rusk called the Senate action “most unfortunate.”

Later, aid in surplus food was authorized by the Sen- ate. At press time, the House had not yet taken final action on the Administration’s foreign aid legislation, designed to allow continuation of U.S. efforts to take advantage of polycentrism in the Communist camp.

According to Washington reports, the Senate move runs counter to a planned series of “accommodations” with the Sine-Soviet bloc in an all-out protracted effort to achieve a dCtente in the Far East and in Europe. The U.S. Information Service, according to these reports, has been instructed to stress U.S. areas of agreement not only with France and Germany but with the Soviet Union.

Secretary Rusk is reported to have asked the President to forego proclamation this year of Captive Nations Week, designated by Congress in 1959 as the third week in July-in order not to upset delicate negotiations on the status of West Berlin. The Captive Nations Week proclamation was rather ineptly formulated and calls for free elections not only in Albania, the Baltic states, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Po- land and Rumania, but also in such dubious geographi- cal areas as Idel-Ural. This creates the erroneous im- pression that the United States intends to dismember Russia proper. Unfortunately, irresponsible lobbyists occasionally take an unfair advantage of well-inten- tioned and nobly-motivated Members of Congress.

Kennedy Group To Aid Berlin President Kennedy has established an interagency

committee to keep West Berlin from “withering on the vine.” It is considering building a new university in West Berlin, setting up an automation center or locating U.N. departments there--as well as encouraging U.S. business fiis to locate branches or factories.

European Union Group Favors U.S. Ties During debate on defense policy at the Western

European Union meeting in Paris June 6, Sir Otho Prior-Palmer, British Conservative Member of Parlia- ment, asserted that the “third force” policy of President de Gaulle of France, which proposes a European alli- ance of nations outside of NATO, “would play com- pletely and straight into Communist hands and would be the beginning of the breakup of NATO.” Two days earlier French Premier Pompidou, addressing the as- sembly, had urged “transformation of an alliance con- ceived at a time when the United States held nuclear monopoly and Europe was still weak from the after- math of the war.”

F. F. J. Goedhart of the Netherlands, chairman if the Union’s committee on defense questions, spoke up strongly for “co-operation between Europe and North America.” He said: “Without the help of the United States and Canada, Europe would have become the prey of Soviet imperialism. The strength of the United States, with its nuclear power and modern weapons, has made it the chief partner in the alliance.” A majority of the delegates supported this view.

Khrushchev Attacks Common Market Khrushchev used a friendship rally for President

Modiba Keita of Mali in Moscow to launch an attack against the European Common Market, which Soviet propaganda had hitherto derided as an enterprise doomed to failure. “One of the principal aims of the Common Market,” said Khrushchev, “is to harness a number of liberated countries to the economy of the

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imperialist states and to keep them in bondage.” Khrushchev charged that some African leaders shared “only the color of their skins with their people” but otherwise were still “servants of imperialism.”

Insisting that, although the Common Market was aimed at the Soviet Union and other “socialist” coun- tries, it posed no threat to them, Khrushchev called upon the U.N. to “resist the international union of capitalist monopolies” because they were a threat to “the young states of Asia, Africa and Latin America.”

Refugees Still ‘Voting With’ Feet’ The recently stepped-up flight of refugees through

such holes in the Bamboo Curtain as Hong Kong and Macao has called the world’s attention once again to the plight of the peoples in all countries under Communist rule. Since the end of World War II about 10 million people have “voted with their feet” (to use a phrase Lenin made famous during the revolutionary upheavals of 1917) against Communist regimes.

Before the Wall split Berlin in two on August 13, 1961, four million Germans, out of a total population of 17 million, went West; and flights continue, though in considerably diminished numbers, against insuperable obstacles and at great risk of life. Two and one-half mil- lion, including 200,000 freedom fighters from Hungary in 1956, fled the Soviet satellite states since the middle forties.

Between one and two million fled from North to South Korea; at least goo,ooo from North to South Vietnam. More than a million refugees have fled from Conti- nental China since 1950. This year 36,000 of them have sought asylum in Macao, and in May the flood of Chinese refugees to Hong Kong swelled to 4,000 per day. At least 55,000 Tibetans have fled since the occupa- tion of their country by Chinese Communist troops. About 50,000 have fled Communist-occupied areas of Laos. More than 60,000 Yugoslavs have fled during the last five years from Marshal Tito’s rule. Nearly 200,000

out of a total population of fewer than seven million have fled from Castro’s Cuba, 150,000 to the United States.

East German Communist Diplomats Kept “On String” Being a diplomat for Communist East Germany is not

an easy job, according to an unofficial West Berlin in- telligence agency. Information Bureau West said a member of the East German trade mission in Egypt de- cided he couldn’t take it any more and defected.

He explained that members of East German missions in capitalist or neutral countries must send and receive all private mail through the office where the security officer (member of the secret police) can check the let- ters. Diplomats must surrender passports and airline tickets to the same office, and anyone who wants to spend more than two hours outside his home after 8 p.m. must notify the mission chief.

East Zone Told Terms for loan Chancellor Adenauer said June 5 that the German

Federal Republic would consider granting long-term credits up to $800 million to the East Germans, pro-

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vided the wall that divides Berlin is “put out of func- tion.”

The Chancellor added that, since East Germany re- mains a zone of Soviet occupation, “competent authori- ties should ask” for the loan before a decision could be made. The Soviet Government, which has its own domestic economic troubles, has not yet associated itself with the credit request of its East German satel- lite.

Bonn Smashes Spy Networks The Federal German Republic has smashed five Com-

munist spy networks during April and May, unmask- ing 304 espionage agents directed by the East German Ministry of State Security. This was reported by the Bonn Ministry of the Interior.

Soviet Citizens Told of Price Boosts Soviet urban workers were warned they could expect

no wage increases because of new, higher meat and butter prices. Premier Khrushchev, who gave the news, ominously said Soviet citizens who “do not wish to un- derstand . . . should be called to order.” He spoke June 2 to a meeting of 5,000 young Communist League members, and Radio Moscow emphasized it the next day by rebroadcasting his remarks in full.

Khrushchev’s warnings were liberally mixed with appeals for understanding that defenses and money for continued industrialization could not be cut, even to improve lagging agriculture. The decision to raise meat prices by 30 per cent and butter by 25 per cent was held to be necessary to increase lagging production; the need for more money to finance agricultural mech- anization was also stressed.

In defending the increases, Radio Moscow also blamed the West: “International reaction, with U.S.A. in the lead, is conducting a frenzied drive for armaments and is hatching a surprise nuclear and missile attack.”

Soviet Agricultural Scientists Purged Moscow Pravda April 8 reports expulsion from Soviet

Academy of Agricultural Sciences during its plenary session of I. D. Laptyev, a former member of the academy praesidium and director of its economics and agricultural organization department, and S. F. Demi- dov, also an important agricultural scientist, both of whom passively resisted Khrushchev’s plans for plowing up Soviet grasslands. This expulsion is a warning to other Soviet scientists, who along with non-Soviet col- leagues regard Khrushchev’s proposal as a threat to ex- haust Soviet soil resources.

The grassland system, by which fields are permitted to lie fallow or seeded to grass in cycles to restore pro- ductivity, has been practiced in the Soviet Union since 1945 and was advocated for many years before by Vas- sily Robertovich Williams (1863-lg3g), world-re- knowned Russian soil expert. The system seemed until recently the most feasible for the country, which lacks sufficient chemical and natural fertilizers. The change to the grasslands system was approved by the XVIII Congress of the CPSU in March, 1939. Since the Central Committee Plenum of March, 1962, it is tabu.

Easter Blocked in Soviet Union The USSR Council of Ministers made it difhcult for

Russian Orthodox Christians to celebrate Easter this year by changing the day of rest from Sunday, April 2g to Monday, April 30 in a decree made public April lo, 1962. This appears to be part of an increasingly vigorous Communist campaign against religion.

Americans Try, Reject life in U.S.S.R. David Paul Johnson, 2 i-year-old Philadelphia rail-

road worker, returned to the United States May 11 with his wife and two children in tow after a week of dis- enchantment in the Soviet Union. A supporter of Com- munist causes in Philadelphia for the past eight years (never a card-carrying Communist, however), Johnson sold most of his possessions to finance the trip to a pros- pective home in a “new” world-a Communist world.

Johnson found the people in the Soviet Union to be ill-fed and generally badly clothed. He said he was stopped several times by people who wanted to buy the clothes off his back.

His disillusionment was similar to that of two other Americans, who had spent about three years apiece in the U.S.S.R. after renouncing U.S. citizenship. The two, who recently returned from the Soviet Union where they had married Soviet citizens, were Robert E. Web- ster and Lee Harvey Oswald. Webster had been em- ployed with a U.S. exhibit touring the Soviet Union. Oswald had been a Marine.

Soviet Civil Defense Manual on Sale U.S. Commerce Department’s Office of Technical

Services placed on sale in April an English translation of a Soviet book entitled Medical and Civil Defense in Total War published originally by the Byelorussian Ministry of Health in 1959. Starting with an attack on “the aggressive ruling circles of certain capitalist states” and heavily laced with Communist propaganda, the book was written by two civil defense specialists, L. F. Supron and F. P. Zverev. It is based on lectures given at a medical institute in Minsk, 1955-58.

It differs from American civil defense literature in placing greater emphasis on conventional, chemical and bacteriological warfare than its American counterpart. This aspect of Soviet civil defense was clearly brought out in studies by Rand Corporation’s Leon Gourd, espe- cially in his recent book Civil Defense in the Soviet Union, published by the University of California Press.

Jailing of Novelist Protested Protests against the imprisonment of Soviet sculptor-

novelist M&hail Naritsa continue. Ninty-one news- papers in the German Federal Republic, 38 in Holland, such newspapers as The Sunday Times and The Man- chester Guardian in England, Corriere della Sera, I1 Pop010 and Messagero in Italy, La Razon in Argentina, Le Jour in Lebanon and Basler Nachrichten in Switzer- land are among the publications that have reported his arrest and public protests against it outside the Soviet Union.

M&hail Alexandrovich Naritsa sent Khrushchev a copy of his novelette Unpractised Song (Nyespyetaya

Pyesnya), published in the Russian emigre journal GRANI (#48) under the pseudonym “M. Narymov,” and in a covering letter requested an exit visa for him- self and his family. He had previously applied to the Supreme Soviet for permission to leave the country but without result. After his letter to Khrushchev, Naritsa was arrested by the KGB Oct. 13, 1961. Naritsa pre- viously had been imprisoned most of the time between 1935 and 1957.

Djilas Sentenced, Charges Frameup Milovan Djilas, former partisan general and Yugo-

slav Vice President, was convicted at a secret trial in Belgrade May 14 for disclosing state secrets in a new book and sentenced to nine years, eight months of strict imprisonment to be followed after release by a five-year ban from all public activities. The ban, according to a court spokesman, covers speeches at public gatherings, radio and television appearances and writing for publi- cation. The court also ordered confiscation of all royal- ties from the Djilas book, Conversations With Stalin, re- leased for publication May 25, reviewed on page lg.

Barak Case Called Czech Frameup Former Czechoslovak Deputy Prime Minister Rudolf

Barak was sentenced April 20, to 15 years imprisonment by a military tribunal. He was found guilty of embez- zling state funds during his tenure as Minister of the Interior from 1953 until June 1961, when he became Deputy Prime Minister.

In February Barak was stripped of his office, expelled from the Czech Politbureau, deprived of membership in the Communist Party and arrested on charges of gross violations of “socialist legality,” political adven- turism and mismanagement of state funds. His case took a sharply political turn when Party First Secretary and President of Czechoslovakia, Antonin Novotny, accused Barak of conspiracy in an attempt to seize power. None of the political charges were sustained by the military court, and this may be interpreted as a boomerang against Novotny.

According to Antonin Buzek (until his recent defec- tion, head of the London bureau of Ceteka, the Czech counterpart of TASS) in a Forum Service release, Barak’s conviction was a frame-up. Novotny regarded Barak as his greatest rival and political adversary, be- cause Barak had no Stalinist past, whereas Novotny, during the brief Czechoslovak “thaw” in 1956, was openly criticized as a Stalinist.

Soviet Role in Cuba To insure a continuing stream of support to Castro,

the USSR has undertaken some propaganda moves, which though not cures act as palliatives. Cuba has been advanced on the list of socialist nations and Castro himself has been awarded the Lenin (formerly Stalin) Peace Prize.

Cuba’s dependence on the Soviet Union for economic support is a problem. The distance which separates the two nations will hurt the Cuban economy since the time lag between orders and shipments will be crucial. The domestic economic difficulties suffered by Castro’s

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regime are blamed on U.S. “intervention” and the recent politico-economic re-organizations have not suc- ceeded.

These propaganda maneuvers, though solving little, are insurances of Soviet support and aid in solidifying Castro’s position. How long such a drama is to last is not known but the final curtain is some time off.

Castroism for Export in Latin America Cuba is exporting its revolution, but in doing so is

encountering resistance. Venezuela is plagued by left- ists, who recently have sparked two revolts: Puerto Cabello in early June and Carupano in May. The left- ists, many of whose leaders are naval officers, inflicted heavy damages on loyalist forces in both the seacoast cities before fleeing to the mountains to resume guerrilla activities. They have the support of Communists and the pro-Castro Movement of the Revolutionary Left.

In Ecuador, Castroites rose in Santo Domingo Colo- rado in April. The fighting occurred in the mountain- ous banana belt about 60 miles west of Quito, the capital.

Each incident failed for different reasons. In Vene- zuela, Loyalist military forces assisted by the peasantry squelched the revolt. The peasants, pacified by agrarian reforms, generally support the government. In Ecuador, the military without peasant support destroyed the pro- Castro elements, said to include 1,000 Havana-trained guerrillas. This result might have been anticipated, since in early April the military had strongly entered politics by forcing President Arosemena to break with Castro, Czechoslovakia and Poland. Apart from Army pressure, Arosemena has also had to confront demands made by the National Democratic Front, an opposition political party. In June congressional and municipal elections, the Arosemena forces did not fare well com- pared to moderate liberal candidates, and the left suf- fered a sharp defeat.

Communist-Backed Candidate in Colombia

Although Communist activity in Latin America is largely clandestine, Columbia’s May 6 election demon- strated that special situations necessitate overt methods. To undermine the system of government by coalition the Communists supported Lopez Michelson for the presidency, and the seriousness of this maneuver was illustrated when Lopez placed second in the race.

The Colombian Communists are far from power but the election demonstrated that their principal tactic is fundamental: to strike at the constitutional system. The Communist party is legal in Columbia (it has approxi- mately 5,000 members) but it can wield influence only after it is assured of popular support. A large number of the electorate sided with the CP this year and this sup- port is likely to increase since the populace has many grievances which have not been rectified. Reforms have been slow and Communists promise speedy solutions.

Coalition to Keep Laos “Neutral” Formed While progress toward a Laotian coalition govern-

ment came early this month, it is too early to tell how neutral and how effective such a government will be even if finalized at Geneva. The Communists continue to protest loudly against the presence of U.S. troops in

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Southeast Asia, hoping to force their ultimate with- drawal from Laos, where several hundred advisers are stationed-and even from neighboring South Viet Nam and Thailand, where more substantial forces help prop up the governments. Since Communist forces now con- trol much of Laos, such U.S. withdrawals would facili- tate eventual Communist domination of Laos and all Southeast Asia with its “rice bowl.”

President Kennedy, in his mid-June exchange of mes- sages with Premier Khrushchev, was cautious about a Laotian settlement and the easing of similar Cold War problems. “It is very important that no untoward ac- tions anywhere be allowed to disrupt the progress which has been made,” Kennedy said in his reply to Khrush- chev’s note.

The Soviet Premier had hailed formation of a coali- tion government, after 13 months of negotiations, as a pivotal event “in the cause of strengthening peace in Southeast Asia.” Better insight into Communist objec- tives in Laos came, however, from the statement attack- ing “American warmonger” maneuvers by pro-corn- munist Prince Souphanouvong, right after formalization of the coalition agreement. It set up a troika-type re- gime, led by “neutralist” Prince Souvanna and by one pro-Communist and one pro-Western representative.

Prince Souphanouvong, named a deputy premier along with rightist Gen. Phoumi Nosavan, elaborated on his charge, saying: “One must not forget that near our frontiers there are armed American forces and that these forces will support the reactionaries to sow troubles and provocations on our lands.”

U.S. awareness of the continued danger in Laos is in- dicated by President Kennedy’s cautious statements, and by Secretary of State Rusk. In a June Voice of America interview on Laos, Rusk indicated this country now is resuming its large-scale economic aid, which until February was averaging three million dollars a month.

American troops in Thailand, South Viet Nam and Laos will not be withdrawn just because a Laotian co- alition government has been formed, the State Depart- ment has indicated. W. Averell Harriman, assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs, said U.S. troops were in Thailand to bolster Western strength in Southeast Asia generally. As for withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Laos, Harriman said this would be done simultaneously with the pullout of non-Laotian Communist forces. Those troops are estimated to in- clude up to IO,OOO North Vietnamese Communists.

The United States has been understandably reluctant to commit combat forces to Laos, as it has in South Viet Nam, hoping instead for more forceful military com- mitments by native forces including those of nearby members of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).

U.S. officials have shown an increasing concern and awareness concerning Communist activities in Southeast Asia? and have acted with firmness in South Viet Nam and m Thailand. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. Mc- Namara, on his May tour of Southeast Asia, reaffirmed U.S. determination to keep that area out of Communist hands but admitted the struggle would be long and bitter.