The Nome Nugget

Congolese About-face Toward Belgium
Eases Threat of Russian Intervention

By The Associated Press

A pronouncement by Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba today abruptly eased the threat of Russian intervention in the Congo.

He unexpectedly offered a hand of friendship to Belgium and said there is no longer any need for Soviet military aid.

The Premier expressed profound thanks to the U.N. Security Council for its renewed demand that Belgian troops quit the Congo, although his call for an immediate pullout had been disregarded.

The about-face came in a Leopoldville news conference shortly before Lumumba's scheduled takeoff for the United States and Canada to appeal for economic aid, technicians and doctors and-if the Security Council is still in session-to sit in on a meeting.

"We have political independence and now we need economic independence," he said.

"We need bread and happiness for our people. We want to create a national economy."

The change in mood of the goateed nationalist, 34, came a few hours after the Soviet Union joined the 10 other members of the Security Council in a unanimous vote for a Ceylonese - Tunisian resolution that called on Belgium to withdraw her forces "speedily" from the new African republic.

There was a shift also in the tone of Moscow, which has been hammering away-on a line set by Premier Khrushchev that the Russians would take "resolute measures" if what Khrushchev called Western aggression continued in the Congo.

U.S. Secretary of State Herter yesterday assailed the Russians Congo campaign as a reckless bluff. He pledge that the United States will press ahead with all-out moral and material support for U.N. efforts to restore order —regardless of Soviet threats.

The declaration was part of a new Washington policy of calling Russia's hand each time it believes Kremlin leaders are threatening action they dare not carry out.