Playing With Fire
T+ HE decision of the American International Longshoremen's Association to boycott all ships of any line whose vessels call at Cuban ports may make the blockade of President Castro's island rather more effective than the requests of the American Government to its allies have so far done. Such a threat is likely to have more effect on British shipping companies than ex- hortations from the Ministry of Transport which All systems. GO!' would require legislation to turn them into orders. For this development the Cuban Government has only itself to blame. The anti-American harangue to which UN delegates were treated by President Dorticos, applauded as it was by a Communist claque, could only enflame American public opinion, and, in wishing to make effective a blockade of Cuba, the Longshoremen certainly reflect the emotions of their members and their fellow-countrymen. No doubt, American public reactions to this challenge will be used by our own perennial anti-Americans to conceal what 15 the essential political fact of that situation : that President Kennedy is acting with calm and re- straint in face of dangerous provocation. He must realise the international complications which would arise from any move against Cuba as well as the disastrous effect such a step would have upon his Latin American policy, but the pressures on him are great. In fact, it looks as if the Cuban Government and the Soviet Union arc de- liberately probing to see how far they can go with- out an American reaction. If so, they are playing with fire.
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