DEVELOPMENTS IN CUBA

Created: 8/11/1960

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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Is now evidence ot preparations (or the delivery of bloc arms to Cuba. Twoofficials froa tbe Soviet Chief Engineering Directorate, Moscow's organization handling tbe supply of military goods to foreign countries, were noted recently in Havana. One of then, Sergelchlk, is head of tbethe otber, Taatrebov,

is responsible for dlspetcblng military cargoes froa the Dlaok

S Sea port of Nikolsyev, where

almost all Soviet arms shipments originate. Thslr task in Cuba probably was to arrange for military dsllverles. Similar arrangements apparently were made earlier this yearroup of Cuban military trainees now may be in Prague for military

Neither Soviet nor Czech arms are known to have arrived in Cuba.

ugust, Fidel Castro launched the regime's sharpest antl-US attack to datepeech announcing confiscation of further American properties. The tirade, delivered at tbe closing session of tbe Coaaunlst-SOnlnatsd Lstln American Touts Congress,rank appeal to tbe Latin American people over the beads of their governments. Castro boasted tbst neither. which be callof "militarily secondhe "lackey foreign ministers" of tbe Organization of American States could bait Cuba's rsvo-lutloncmlsphers-vide "revolution against the Yankee colonial yoke:"

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The decreeugustwhich moat of tbe remaining US-owned property ln Cuba nationalized was tbe reglne'e most provocative anti-US act yet. Proportion expropriated include the electric company, tbe telephone company, the oil refineries which already had been taken over, and allsugar sills and lands. Tbe total value of these properties le estlaatedhysical seizure of theplants clearly was pro-arranged and was carried out immediately, often by elements of the "people's nllitln."

The promulgation onecree cresting nInstitute of Mining,'* which is to operats under the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA) and control Cuban mineral production, nay presage tbe seizure ofmining interests, which were byugust decree.

These extreme provocations suggest that tbe regime may even be trying to provoke OS military lntervontion, In the belief this wouldatin American revolution

The pastoral letter wblcb was read in all Cuban Catholic churchesugust marks tho end of the church's cautious position toward the regime. The letter vigorously attackedand declared that the church is "profoundly disturbed by the fact that newspapermen, labor leaders, and even some government officials have re-

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poatedly and enthusiastically eulogized the system of life" ln Communist countries.

Response to tbe letter was varied. According to church sources, the letter was sell receivedajority ofin the Bavana area,umber of pro-Castro atholics allegedly left tbelr churcbes when tbe letter was read, and flgbting between pre-and antl-Csmtro elements Is reported to have taken place ln several areas following the services. Thopress attacked the clergy for not having denounced the brutalities of tho Batista regime sod declared that if the church were to pit itself against tbe revolution, "tbe one who will loss will be the church."

Additional gatherings of Communists and Communlst-front groups are scheduled, now that the youth congress is over. "Volunteors"umber of countries, Including most Slso-Sbviet bloc nations, aretomany delegates to the congress who have remslned ina "school city" in th* Sierra Uaostra. Cuba's Popular Socialist (Communist) party is lovltlng foreign delegates to its eighth congress, ehlcb previously was planned for July but now apparently is to begin on ugust. ongress of Communist of underdeveloped reportedly will be held Id Cuba later this year?

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Original document.

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