Prague radio (in English) 1630 GMT

Excerpts from talk:

In 1954 the Italian administration saw no other way than to give consent to the first local elections, with the first parliamentary elections following two years later. The first parliamentary elections in British Somaliland were only held last year. In both the elections the Young Somalis League polled a large majority.

The League is a typical bourgeois party, consisting in the first place of business circles. In an effort to paralyse this biggest Somali political force, the Italian Government launched a series of attempts to corrupt the League. It transferred part of the shares owned by Italian firms to leading Somali politicians and public person-alities, offering them a share in the distribution of dividends.

As a result of this, part of the Young Somali League was talked into co-operation with the colonialists. Rhe second strongest party in the country, the Great Somaliland League, is probably the most progressive force in the political arena.

Today, the new Somali Government is faced with enormous tasks in raising the economic standard of its country. As far as agriculture is concerned, the Italian Government did irrigate fairly large stretches of the land in the south of the country, but then these areas were taken hold of by Italian banana plantation owners. Industry is rather weak in the country…

Rich deposits of oil have been discovered in the northern part of Somaliland. The American Sinclair Somali Company, as well as the Italian ENI concern, were not slow to secure long-term exploitation licences while Somaliland was still under foreign domination. It is safe to expect that foreign capital will hold on to its positions in the country as long as possible.

All this adds up to the fact that the mere proclamation of political independence does not yet mean the end of the Somali people’s struggle.

However, the new Somali Republic already has examples of a reliable and well-tested way towards strengthening its independence to follow a policy of neutrality and non-commitment in military blocs and groupings, as well as a policy of equal co-operation with all countries.

If Somaliland chosen to set out on this kind of path to progress, it can count on the full sympathy and support of the world camp of peace, including Czechoslovakia, which sincerely welcomes the Somali people’s hard-earned freedom.