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90. (Continued) SUMMARY CONTENTS Ir. No change has been noted in the scope or pace of the construction at the IRBM and MRBM missile sites in Cuba. Cuban armed forces continue their alert, with mil- itary aircraft on standdown since the morning of 23 Oc- tober. There are indications that known and suspected dissidents are being rounded up. Ii. As of 0600 EDT at least 14 of the 22 Soviet ships which were known to be en route to Cuba had turned back. Five of the remaining eight are tankers. Two of the dry cargo ships not known to have reversed course may be carrying no but the BELOVODSK Bes aa hh as has 12 HOUND helicop- ourse appear ave been executed in midday on 23 October, before the President Signed the proc- lamation establishing the quarantine. Iirz,. .We still see no signs of any crash procedure in measures to increase the readiness of Soviet armed forces. Bloc media are playing up Khrushchev's 24 October state- ment that he would consider a top-level meeting "useful." Iv.: There is as yet no reaction to the turn-around of Soviet shipping, which had not become publicly apparent. Attention remains centered on neutralist efforts in the UN to find machinery for easing tension. Canada has searched a Cubana airliner flying from Prague to Havana, Latin American countries are beginning to offer military units for the quarantine, and there is generally little adverse reaction in the hemisphere,