Ithough I was prepared for A it, I was struck on arrival by the gaping abyss between Cuban realities and the fear- some image dreamed up by Western propaganda. To start with, no one is hungry in Cuba; a junior member of the British Em- bassy in Havana told me he had written to- his mother complaining of the rations, which he listed. He got a let- ter back saying; “My dear boy, you do not seem to real- ize that these rations are about twice as big as what we got during the war.” Diet is monotonous, ‘as the » choice is narrow and you may _get something different from - the ration you asked for (i.e.;- - meat instead of chicken, or vice versa) and it may not al- ways be delivered on the day promised. (There was an uproar in Santa Clara when chicken was promised for Christmas Eve — and arrived on the 26th, while the population put up with inferior substitutes not suitable for celebrating Christmas). But the mass of the People are better fed than they ever have been, and _ far better than the majority of the people in most other Latin- .American countries. And, of course, as in other socialist states, children are specially. cared for: those - under seven get one litre (134 pints) of milk a day, and also have most of the butter there is. 1 The fact that a large part — of the 63 million dollars the Cuban government extracted as payment for the damage _ caused by the Cuban merce- naries at Playa Giron went on baby foods (the rest on medi- cines) again shows the scale of priorities in revolutionary Cuba. * * se Nor do the Cubans appear frightened by the American blockade and boycott and con- tinued attempts to isolate and intimidate them, organize spy- rings, subsidize sabotage, and generally continue the gen- era]. policy of more or less cold aggression practised ever since the land reform act. On the contrary, the Cub- ans are fiercely angry. Am- -erican policy has consolidated national support for the re- _'gime (thousands joined the militia during the blockade who had never done so be- fore). The Cubans believe time is on their side, but that the United States wil) attack and attempt to destroy them so as to prevent the revolution spreading to the rest of Latin America. _ But their morale is such _ that most people really mean “patria o muerte.’ Fidel’s voice was never more authen- tically the voice of the people of Cuba than when he said at the January 2 meeting, simply and with utter sincerity: , “We can die not because we despise life, not because we think little of the great achievements of our people, ‘not because we do not sce _ the shining future which our labours are giving us the right to enjoy, but because the lives of all of us are joined .for ever to this idea and to this future, and we do not “want to live without a coun- out dignity, without justice, without bread for our child- ren, without a future. And that is why we Say ‘patria o- 299 muerte. Fidel Castro has given the strictest orders, both publicly and privately, not to respond to any form of provocation, and to be patient and circum- spect. In his January 2 speech he repeated once more that _ ernment not confident of the people’s support would do that. The Cubans are very frank in admitting and discussing their mistakes: the revolution has been’ forced pressures and resistances they had not forseen, from a po- litical revolution to land re- form, and from the latter to a full-fledged social revolution. _We reprint the article here. KONNIE ZILLIACUS, outspoken Brit- ish Labor MP, visited Cuba at the same time as Cedric Cox, MLA for Burnaby. Upon his return, Zilliacus wrote an ar- ticle of his impression of the island in the Caribbean, from which Jack Scott recently quoted in the Vancouver Sun. greater part of his along, by - the Cubans were anxious to settle all differences with the United States by peaceful means, to accept any system of inspection under United Nations auspices that was based on reciprocity, and to enter into agreements based on the U.N. Charter with - other Caribbean states for vances non-aggression, non-interfer- ence in each other’s internal affairs, and settling differ- ences by the methods _pre- scribed in the Charter. _ Fidel’s January 2 speech, as, all his other public utterness, stressed the government’s view that the Soviet Union had stood by them throughout and done everything it had promised. * * * rapidly at There was no sign of re- sentment among the many people I talkeq with, from every walk of life and with a wide range of views, at the presence of Soviet technicians —on the contrary. The only complaint was that most of them. knew only _ Russian, whereas the Poles, and parti- cularly the Czechs, took the trouble to learn Spanish. The only person who tried . to put over the Western story about Soviet troops in Cuba was a Methodist ‘“gusano’’ who openly admitted he was > against the regime. He claim- ed that the Russians were _ there to protect Castro against the people, just as American forces had protected Batista. But another member of the circle discussing this matter said this was ridiculous if only because today the militia numbered over three million _ out of a total] population of - under seven million. No gov- The installation of the first hydroelectric centre of Cuba ad- Hanabanilla, in the central part of the en substantially It has passed. through the stage of heroic improvization and is only beginning the stage of organization. They made the major mis- take of trying to.switch over | too quickly from a monocrop culture to diversified agricul- ture because sugar cane was. so associated with the worst abuses of the old regime that . there was an emotional pre- judice against it and because, after the Americans cut off their imports of sugar, the Cubans believed it would be- come a drag on the market. Instead, the price of sugar on the world market has ris- in the last eighteen months and they can sell every pound they pro- duce. “Sugar is Cuba’s gold” is now the slogan, and great stress is laid on eeoiluemne more. ‘But whereas before there were the hordes of unemploy- ed to supply cheap seasonal labour for cutting, milling and refining the sugar, there is now a chronic over-all shor- | tage of labour in Cuba, and great campaigns to recruit volunteers, students and ~ others from the cities, to. cut | the sugar. - This year three. nailoiynes are working successfully of a_ kind of sugar-cane harvester which not only cuts the canes but lops off the leafy tops ang stacks and binds them ready for the mill. By next year it is hoped to have a suf- ficient number of these mach- ines to cut down and even- tually get rid of the demand for extra labour. . . * ae * achievements Cuba’s in schooling and housing are too~ * Cuba moving ahead on new path well-known to need comment. But there is no intention by the government to rest on its laurels in this field. -. “Spare parts” are. still a headache, when it comes to keeping American-made cars, trucks .and factories going. But some are being produced locally. Meanwhile new factories built by the Soviet Union and East-European countries are springing up; trucks and buses and some cars are he- ing imported, and due to be made in Cuba in two or three years. : There is an unlimited mar- ket for Cuban tobacco and tropical products in the social- ist countries: Cuban soi] is extraordinar- ily fertile and the climate permits of three or four crops a year Fand antniut ic inereas- ing and becoming more var- ied. More and more chicken, duck, turkey and pig farms are springing up... * * The sum up: U.S. cold ag- gression, mixed with prepara- tions for and threats of hot aggression, is consolidating ~ national unity in support of © the regime and keep the flame of revolutionary ferv- our burning bright. _ Failing a direct major at- tack by American forces, which would almost certain ly bring the world to: the brink of nuclear war, the re- — volution, by the efforts of — the Cubans themselves and aided by the socialist states, will succeed in building a new order much superior to the old and to what exists.in the rest of Latin America. \ CUATEMALA— mecent. ly the government pro- ss claimed martial law for the. “ second time in 15 months. Recently 13 trade union of- ficials were arrested - and secret police are combing the countryside for ‘‘sub- versives.”” : Guerrillas are carrying on an active struggle against the dictatorship in many provinces’ and U.S. fighters and bombers, ac: cording to West Germany’s Die Welt, are on constant alert in the capital to come to the aid of their puppets. in the country for a demo- cratic government to de- fend the nation’s interests and not be a servant of Washington. Meanwhile, the country has been turn- ed into a_ vast training ground to prepare gangs of mercenaries for an attack clique in office. x * * prices, falling wages, grow- ing unemployment, ruin of the small farmers, a declin- ing industry and shrinking Latin America fights against U.S. domination - strikers. Hundreds of strik-. _ forces. There is strong agitation - on Cuba by the pro-U-S. — URUGUAY — Rising _ hands of giant estate own- exports. This is the result of the intervention in Uru- guay’s economy by USS. monopolies and the Inter- national Monetary Fund. . A recent government de- cree outlawed strikes and prohibits: defense of strik- ers by the press and radio. It also attempts to legalize military force against ers have been arrested. - The Left Front of Liber- ation, formed in 1962, in- cludes considerable — sec- tions of the country’s Left There has been a fourfold increase in Com- munist Party membership from 1955 to 1962. The people’s movement recently forced the govern ment to retreat when it tried to introduce reaction- ary legislation. : * * ght BRAZIL — Membership in the peasant unions has grown from 50,000 two years ago to 600,000. Radi- cal land reform is the greatest need. Millions are landless. The land is in the eds. President pntarts Pls ernment represents the na- tional capitalists. Trade with socialist countries en- ables Brazil to reduce its ‘coffee surpluses, The gov- ernment supports disarma- ment and peace and op- poses military aggression 3 against Cuba.: | The US. is extremely concerned about “Commu- nist influence” in the parli- ament and armed forces, and the U.S. recently. threatened to cut their foreign aid unless the gov- % ernment complies with % their demands. — Yhae ik * VENEZUELA — A na- + tional liberation army Leo formed in March, 1962, ‘answer the terror aie Betancourt government. It was charged that planes manned by USS. . Plot pene dropped napalm