Certain "Deficiencies"

The urgency in Che Guevara's pleas for coexistence reflected Cuba's increasing economic troubles. With something less than his usual cockiness. Fidel Castro announced last week that he was imposing meat rationing on the fertile "Pearl of the Antilles." All housewives must register with neighborhood butchers, who will assign them numbers. When meat arrives, the butcher is supposed to post, by turn, the numbers of housewives who may buy one-half pound per family member. The butchers do not know how often they will get deliveries from the government; the housewives do not know when--or if--their numbers will come up.

Meat is only the latest of scarcities under Castro. One by one, the abundant supplies of fish, pork, vegetables, rice, wheat, eggs, such consumer staples as razor blades, toilet paper and soap have disappeared from the shelves. Last month, to fight black-marketing, the government ordered that 15 articles--among them toothpaste, thread, and nursing nipples--would be sold henceforth only in government-designated stores. But what Castro cannot do by fiat is to end his own mismanagement, which has crippled Cuba's economy, or to overcome the stiff U.S. trade embargo, which makes matters very much worse.

How Much Left? The meat shortage is a good example of Castro's reckless ways and the later reckoning. Seizing the great cattle ranches of Camaguey province, the "Texas of Cuba," Castro's men slaughtered breeding cattle by the thousands to show Cubans what a good life the revolution had brought. Before long, the herds were decimated. Fortnight ago, Castro ordered a count to see how many cattle were left, and last week called a national conference to ponder "production deficiencies."

Similar foul-ups afflict much of the Cuban economy. The Communist bloc barters oil. guns, MIG jets, some machinery and foodstuffs for sugar, plus other Cuban produce such as tuna. But the Reds do not, and apparently cannot, conduct the $1 billion two-way trade in the range of goods that Cuba once enjoyed with the U.S.

Tobacco for Tampa. A trickle of trade between Cuba and the U.S. remains--$30 million in the first six months of this year. Because of a U.S. Longshoremen's Association boycott, all cargoes to or from Cuba are handled at small, non-union docks in the U.S. They travel in foreign ships and small, privately owned U.S. vessels. The biggest regular shipping center is Tampa, Fla.. where two converted World War II landing craft make the Havana run every week or so. The bulk of U.S. imports is tobacco--$11.3 million worth during the first half of 1961, most of it for Tampa's 75-year-old cigar industry. The U.S. sells Cuba mainly Pharmaceuticals.

Some Congressmen urge President Kennedy to invoke the Trading with the Enemy Act and thus halt U.S.-Cuba trade altogether. Kennedy has held back. The threat remains, and the U.S. is ready to act if Castro makes another rash move.

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