BEING PLOTTED IN GUINEA?
The Statist indicates in its December 30 issue that a coup d'état may be in preparation in Guinea.
"According to Western diplomatic sources," says the British magazine,. "three major Guinean figures have in recent weeks approached three major Conakry embassies -one East, one West and one Gaullist, with offers to stage a- bloodless, Indonesian style 'deposal' coup on Touré, to bring Guinea back into the French African franc area, and to drop the espousal of extremist lost causes....
"The time is certainly ripe. US aid is partially suspended: Washington will shortly announce that it will be resumed in 1967 -- with a 75 per cent slash. Ambassador Robbie McIlvaine, a shirtsleeved intellectual who jokes about his recent house arrest but who realises it marks a turning point in US-Guinean relations, may prolong his current consultations in Washington. in order to leave the embassy downgraded to charge d'affaires level for a while. The Russians, still friendly with the Guinean Government, seem hesitant to increase their aid to counterbalance America's three-quarter withdrawal. France, pressured by the jealous Ivory Coast, cannot be too anti~Americanly opportunistic until Sekou Touré is overthrown.
“Touré is still popular with the Guinean crowds. He drives his own car in the streets without fear of being stoned or shot....It is feared that his arrest would be unpopular."
The reference to a “bloodless, Indonesian style" coup is not without cynicism. The estimates of the number butchered in the nationwide witch-hunt following the coup that put the generals in power run as high as 500,000.
The author of the report probably had Nkrumah in mind when he mentioned "extremist lost causes." Touré granted Nkrumah political asylum when the latter was ousted by a coup d'état in Ghana last February.
WANG JEN-CHUNG NO LONGER IN THE SWIM
Wang Jen-chung, famous throughout China for being such an ardent disciple of the thought of Mao Tse-tung that the great helmsman invited him to join him in the famous breasting of the turbulent waters of the Yangtze River last July 16, now appears to be > badly in need of a life jacket.
The first secretary of the Communist party in the south- -center region, he has reportedly been denounced by Mao's wife, Chiang Ching.
According to the East is Red, a journal of the Red Guards, at a Red Guard meeting in Peking December 16, Mrs. Chiang Ching accused him and two others of responsibility in various incidents. The other two were also disciples of Mao's thought -- Chou Jung-hsin, general secretary in the cabinet of the prime minister and Yung Wen-tao, the first secretary of the Communist party in Canton. ;
NEW BOOK BY LIVIO MAITAN
Rome
The publishing house of Samond e Savelli has just issued a book written by