The Augusta Courier

African Friend Of Russia Has Politicians In U. S. Agog

Negro President Of Guinea Seeks Loan From America; To Be Entertained

Wonders never cease!

And the length to which politicians in the United States will go in their bid for the Negro vote is beyond the wildest of imaginations.

Take the case of the Negro president of the new African state of Guinea.

He is well known as a Communist sympathizer and a friend to Communist Russia. Russia has already loaned him thirty-five million dollars and he comes to this country to borrow more.

Proposed Trips

When he gets here, here are some of the things that are done for him:

1. He is invited to the State of North Carolina where Governor Luther Hodges will preside over an integrated dinner meeting in his honor.

2. He will be conducted over the State of North Carolina by the new Negro U. S. Ambassador to Guinea, John Morrow, who is a native of North Carolina.

3. Senator John F. Kennedy, of Massachusetts, has requested an appointment.

4. Adlai Stevenson has volunteered to give him a luncheon in Chicago.

5. Governor Rockefeller of New York announces that he will help entertain him when he reaches New York City.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Writing on this peculiar situation, in the RICHMOND (Virginia) TIMES-DISPATCH, on October 21, 1959, Charles Bartlett said:

An African Negro leader whose thinking runs toward Marxist doctrine, who is hostile to the French and unfriendly to the West, will visit here next week.

Moreover he apparently is coming to this country with the intention of seeking a loan perhaps even more substantial than the one he has already obtained from Moscow.

Sekou Toure, 37, blunt, and president of the new republic of Guinea, will be warmly received when he arrives on October 26. This government wants his respect, if not his friendship, as he is one of the prevailing voices in emerging Africa. This will be his first trip to the United States.

Domestic Negotiations

Some delicate domestic negotiations have procured for him an invitation to visit North Carolina where Gov. Luther Hodges has agreed to preside in his honor over a bi-racial banquet. This is the first time that anyone can recall a North Carolina governor playing host to an integrated dinner.

Toure's trip through North Carolina will be guided by the new United States ambassador to Guinea, John Morrow, a North Carolina Negro educator. Although he has only been in Guinea since early summer, Morrow is reported to have achieved a close relationship with the president and to have played a large part in arranging his United States tour. George Allen of the United States Information Agency, a native North Carolinian, was instrumental in the discussions with Gov. Hodges which led to his agreement to hold the dinner.

Politicians In Line

The air of cordiality will be warmed by the desire of at least three politicians to meet with the young African. Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of a Senate subcommittee on Africa, has requested an appointment. Adlai Stevenson has offered to give a lunch for him in Chicago and Gov. Rockefeller expects to participate in the New York welcome.

Negro leaders across the country are planning with enthusiasm for his reception and he will see Negro movie stars in Hollywood, a parade in Harlem, and the offices of some successful Negro enterprises like Ebony Magazine and a life insurance company in Durham, N. C.

Major Businesses

Some major businesses like Olin Mathieson, which is interested in the bauxite possibilities of Guinea, are anxious to play host and the Afro-American Institute, largely supported by United States corporations which do business in Africa, will hold a dinner for Toure in New York.

George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, has asked to have dinner with the president, who began his public career as an organizer of Guinea's first trade union at the age of 23.

Toure's response to the United States will be watched closely. He is said anxious to follow a middle road between the East and West. Observers regard him as a Marxist theorist who is not a Communist. In establishing the Guinea government he has followed the Soviet example of emphasis upon the party, and his party, the PDG, is the only one in the country. The party, in his political philosophy, is supreme to the state.

U. S. Officials

United States officials are pleased that his first trip outside Africa should be to this country instead of the Soviet Union, which recently granted Guinea a 35 million dollar loan at 2½ per cent interest.

He is bringing with him the No. 2 party official Saifmoulaye Diallo, who is farther to the left and represents an element of the Guinea government that is anxious for closer ties with the Soviets.

These pressures toward the left are the basis of a lively struggle in Guinea and the experience of the African. Control on that turn could prove decisive in getting the country's future