1.
LV. Tribal chiefs wait outside theatre.
0.04

2.
SV. Ditto.
0.07

3.
SV. Police van stands by.
0.11

4.
LV. Flag PAN down to tribal chiefs waiting.
0.15

5.
CU. Tribal chiefs wait.
0.18

6.
SCU. Ditto wearing tribal headgear.
0.21

7.
SV. Tribal chief with headgear and ceremonial axe.
0.25

8.
CU. Ceremonial axe, PAN down to ornamental rings on legs.
0.31

9.
CU. Tribal chief with headgear.
0.35

10.
CU. Another tribal chief waits.
0.38

11.
SV. Chiefs enter theatre.
0.41

12.
LV.INT. Chiefs seated.
0.45

13.
LV. Tshombe addresses chiefs.
0.49

14.
SV. Chiefs listen.
0.52

15.
SV. Tshombe addresses chiefs.
0.55

16.
BACK V. Ditto.
1.00

17.
CU. Ditto.
1.03

18.
SV. Chiefs applaud.
1.06



Initials LSW/V/AHS/CW



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Moise Tshombe, self-declared president of the Katanga "Republic", the Congo's separatist province, addressed 100 tribal chiefs in Elizabethville, provincial capital, Aug 5, and received their support against threat of intervention by United Nations forces - or any other.

Many chiefs wore their chains of office and carried official carved staves; they represented Balubas, Tshokwes, Bayakas, Lundas, and other tribes; their support for Mr. Tshombe was a restatement of the position some of them had already outlined to United Nations representative Dr. Bunche, Aug. 5.

A twelfth-hour United Nations decision not to send troops into Katanga, Aug 7, followed a 5,000 word cabled appraisal of the situation by Secretary-General Hammarskjoeld in Leopoldville. But Guinea and Ghana have offered to put their troops at direct disposal of the Congolese government, if the United Nations do not solve the Katanga question.

The Security Council meets Aug 8 - having postponed its session until arrival of a Congolese government delegation. Should the Katanga situation deteriorate into open war, no one can rightly assess the strength of provincial forces. Estimates vary from 3,000 tribal warriors, plus units of the re-formed Force Publique, to a mass rising of almost of all males in Katanga's 1,600,000 inhabitants.