◆ SpookStack

“False. Not a shred of evidence has been produced to sup- port such allegations as the one above, charges consistently used to create a smoke screen behind which the social objec- tives of the Cuban revolution can be attacked and sabotaged. Cuba's recent trade pact with the Soviet Union represents an effort to find new markets for Cuban sugar, and to obtain, not arms, but agricultural implements and industrial machinery for which credit has been denied in the United States. Many other American republics trade with the Soviets--as does the United States itself. Cuba's Com- munist Party is a tiny minority, with about 16, 000 members, In the 1959 labor elections, Communist candidates won in only eight of the 243 locals of the 500,000-member Sugar Workers Federation, and none was elected to the executive council of the national labor organization, the’C.T.C. In international affairs, Cuba finds its natural affinity with the other small, under-developed nations of the world, It 4s true that a profound social and economic revolution is in progress in Cuba, and that the sweeping reforms that are being inaugurated undoubtedly must affect the one-billion- dollar U.S. investment in the island. But only those who equate Communism with all forces that threaten the status quo of property interests will find the Cuban Revolution tCommunistic.! Efforts to drive a wedge between the Roman Catholic Church and the. Revolutionary Government, on the issue of Communism, have been forcefully repulsed by the Church itself. To quote the latest of several recent Apt e _deglarations on the subject, Monsignor MANUEL-RODRIGUEZ On: \ROZAS, Bishop of Pinar del. Rio, says: ‘There is perfect harmony between the Church and the State.' ‘Our Revolution, ! says FIDEL CASTRO, ‘is not Communist but humanist,.' “ CONFISCATION: ‘In Cuba, CASTRO is stealing American property with impunity.'-U.S. News & World Report “False. Although the word ‘confiscation! has often been used by the press in a context which would suggest illegal seizure, nothing has been stolen from any American--or any Cuban. The Agrarian Reform Law, designed to diversify Cuban agriculture and to give 100,000 landless peasants a stake in their own rich agricultural country, conforms in all respects with international law and the practice =~