RUSSIA GIVING AID

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30953, 8 January 1966, Page 13

RUSSIA GIVING AID

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) HAVANA, Jan. 7. A Soviet representative told the tricontinental solidarity conference of revolutionaries yesterday that Russia was “doing everything possible so that Soviet technical equipment—planes, missiles, artillery, ammunition and other aids—reach the hands of the Vietnamese fighters for libertv as rapidly as possible.”

Mr Sharaf Rashidov, heading the Soviet delegation, did not say specifically that this aid would go to the Viet Cong rather than North Vietnam itself, although the term “fighters for liberty" was interpreted to mean the Communists in the south. Russia is reported to have sent weapons to North Vietnam for defence against United States air raids. China’s delegation to the conference boycotted yesterday’s meeting while the Russian delegation held the floor.

Indonesian, Japanese and Pakistani delegates sat impassive, but 500 other delegates from some 100 countries cheered and applauded. Mr Rashidov said his delegation would not get involved in arguments with the Chinese. He was cheered when he supported a Mongolian-

Egyptian proposal for a single tri-continental organisation to hold its next meeting in Cairo in 1968. The new organisation, taking in Latin America, would replace the African and Asian People’s Solidarity Organisation, scheduled to hold its fifth meeting in Peking soon. Mr Rashidov did not reply to Chinese charges that the Kremlin was collaborating with United States imperialists for world domination. But he said United States imperialism was rampant and should be ousted.