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Next, Nasser set Western alarm bells ringing by playing host to a Soviet naval delegation—which presented him with a model submarine—at the same time that Russian and Czech-built "naval units" were steaming into Egyptian ports to add muscle to his navy. Israeli newspapers warned that Nasser was about to reverse his stand against foreign bases by opening Alexandria to Moscow as a replacement for Russia's abandoned Albanian submarine base. Actually, Nasser granted a scant 35 minutes to the delegation's chief, Admiral Sergei G. Gorshkov, Commander in Chief of the Soviet Navy, and, as one Western observer noted: "Even a fast-talking Russian couldn't persuade a stubborn man like Nasser to make such an about-face in so short a time."
Potent Precautions. More likely, Nasser's newest venture into troubled waters involves Kuwait. On Christmas Eve Iraq's Premier Abdul Karim Kassem, keenly interested onlooker in India's invasion of Goa, said that he would follow suit by "liberating" the oil-drenched sheikdom "in the coming days." In the past, Nasser has had as little use for Kassem as for Arabia's harem kings, but recently there have been rumors of a reconciliation.
Britain quickly alerted 7,000 paratroopers, infantrymen and R.A.F. units in Cyprus, Kenya and Bahrein. From Mombasa, Kenya, a strike force of seven warships including the aircraft carrier Centaur with 45 fighter-bombers and helicopters aboard, sailed to join six British vessels already patrolling the Persian Gulf. "Just small-scale precautionary measures," said the Defense Ministry. Added the Foreign Office, confident that the show of force would be effective: "We don't expect any trouble."