CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1954/12/03

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03009173
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: August 20, 2019
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2019
• Publication Date: December 3, 1954

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3 December 1954
Copy No.
80
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO 37
NO CHANGE IN CLASS.
O DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS $ C
NEXT REVIEW DATE: erVC,
AUTH: HR 702
DATE: Vaaa REVIEWER:
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
3.5(c) /,
3.3(h)(2)/ef
04/
Wil0100/110A TflECT VZ:3101014 /
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SUMMARY
GENERAL
1. "Urgent" order for Soviet trucks to China given priority (page 3).
SOVIET UNION
2. USSR reportedly grants new credits to East Germany and Hungary
(page 3).
SOUTHEAST ASIA
3. American consulate surveys situation in Hanoi (page M.
4.
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
5. Saudi king requests US economic aid for railroad project (page 6).
6. Libyan prime minister firm on question of French withdrawal
from Fezzan (page 6).
EASTERN EUROPE
7. Polish Ministry of Public Security reported undergoing shake-up
(page 7).
WESTERN EUROPE
8. London embassy sees French set on unilateral demarche in
Moscow (page 8).
9. Comment on probable postponement of French debate on Paris
accords (page 9).
LATIN AMERICA
10. Solution of Honduran presidential succession may be near (page 10).
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GENERAL
"Urgent" order for Soviet trucks to China given priority:
In compliance with a decision taken by
the Soviet Council of Ministers, a Soviet
truck factory in Chelyabinsk has received
an "urgent and large-scale" order for the
supply of motor vehicles to Communist China.
In order to meet this
commitment the factory was forced to request the Council of
Ministers to permit cancellation of all other orders, including
one from a jet light bomber plant in Irkutsk.
Comment:
either an unusual strategic need fort trucks in China, or a Soviet
effort to fulfill on time a lagging contract for delivery of trucks
to China. The fact that the Council of Ministers was involved may
indicate an extraordinary Soviet concern.
The Chelyabinsk plant produces about
25, 000 vehicles a year, consisting of three nonmilitary models--
a three-ton gasoline truck and two kinds of wood-burning trucks.
The destination of the vehicles in China is not reported, Wood-
burning trucks would, however, be highly useful in the East China
coastal area opposite Formosa. In this area wood is plentiful and
gasoline is scarce. Any substantial military build-up in the area--
which is not served by railroads and cannot depend on supplies by
sea--would require large numbers of vehicles for bringing in
supplies and maintaining mobility.
SOVIET UNION
2. USSR reportedly grants new credits to East Germany and Hungary:
The USSR has granted East Germany
credits equivalent to approximately
$161, 000, 000, which may be drawn
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upon in any desired currency,
in order to
alleviate the Hungarian economic situation, the USSR has advanced
Hungary. $27, 000,000 in the form of vanadium, chrome, cobalt and
consumers' goods.
Comment:
the Malenkov government is giving special economic assistance to
hard-pressed Satellites. Both East Germany and Hungary have
been experiencing severe economic difficulties.
After a period of more than two years
during which no known credits were granted to the European
Satellites, the Malenkov regime in August 1953 granted East
Germany ar A121 9.50 1100 erPrlit n1iidino(tf44. 750 nnn nf frpp
nfl
While the most recently reported
$161, 000, 000 credit appears unusually large in view, of the
magnitude of the 1953 loan, the unique "show-window" position
of East Germany vis-a-vis West Germany may have caused the
USSR to give special consideration to this country. (Concurred
in by ORR)
SOUTHEAST ASIA
3. American consulate surveys situation in Hanoi :
The American consul in Hanoi, summing
up the situation since the Viet Minh take-
over, notes that considerable obscurity
still surrounds the power structure of
the government. The headquarters of the government is still in
the mountain village of Thai Nguyen, rather than in Hanoi itself,
and Ho Chi Minh and Commander in Chief Vo Nguyen Giap rarely
make public appearances.
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Russian, Chinese, and "pure" Viet Minh influence prevails
in varying degrees from one branch of the government to another.
The consul notes that Communist China has been accorded
secondary status in Viet Minh propaganda in contrast to obsequious
praise of the USSR.
The positions of foreign representatives
differ widely. The Russians and the Chinese enjoy full diplomatic
status, and Sainteny, the French representative, has almost equal
standing. The British consul general has been "provisionally
recognized," whereas the Viet :Minh apparently intends to force
the American consulate out by harassing tactics. The consul is
impressed by Sainteny's evident determination to "compensate"
for the breakdown of the agreements he negotiated with the Viet
Minh in 19460 Viet Minh anti-French propaganda is concentrated
on the military. It avoids attacks on Sainteny and seldom criticizes
Mendes-France.
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NEAR EAST - AFRICA
5. Saudi king requests US economic aid for railroad project:
King Saud wishes to obtain an American
grant--not a loan--in order to start
construction of the proposed Riyadh-
Jidda railroad, according to Deputy
Foreign Minister Yassin. Yassin asked Ambassador Wadsworth
on 29 November whether the United States is prepared to help
Saudi Arabia construct the railroad in the same way that
Washington is helping Egypt and other countries.
Comment: Saud's present interest in
American assistance is a considerable change from the attitude
he displayed earlier this year, when he refused American military
grant aid and turned down Point Four assistance.
The value of the railroad project is
dubious. The proposed line would cover some 800 miles and
link the Red Sea port of Jidda with Riyadh, the official capital.
Riyadh is connected with Damman on the Persian Gulf by a
railroad completed in October 1951.
6. Libyan prime minister firm on question of French withdrawal
from Fezzan:
Libyan prime minister Ben Halim has
told Ambassador Tappin in Tripoli that he
will be "forced" to disclose the entire
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history of the negotiations with France, as well as Paris' refusal
to withdraw French military forces from the Fezzan--southern
province of Libya--in his speech from the 'throne at the 9 December
opening of parliament unless Libya receives a "favorable reply"
from France.
Referring to France's "outdated colonial
attitude, " Ben Halim emphasized that no Libyan government
could survive if it sought renewal of the present provisional
agreement with France beyond its expiration date of 31 December
or if it proposed any agreement in future which permitted France
to maintain troops in the Fezzan.
Comment: There is little prospect that
France will modify its position on maintaining troops in the Fezzan.
In view of the strong anti-French sentiment
in the Libyan parliament and France's unyielding attitude, no com-
promise appears to be in sight.
EASTERN EUROPE
7. Polish Ministry of Public Security reported undergoing shake-up:
Several high officials in the Polish Ministry
of Public Security have been arrested and
others are threatened with removal because
of past misdeeds,
ine central contrai committee ot the Polish United Workers
Party is reported to be considering abolishing the ministry and
integrating part of its components into a new Ministry of Internal
Affairs.
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General Komar
ical prisoners,
in the Ministry
ess , partly as
Concurrently the Poles have released
and are about to liberate other high-level pont-
including General Spychalski.
Comment: A thoroughgoing shake-up
of Public Security is probably already in proc-
a result of the defection of Jozef Swiatlo.
General Spychalski, former minister
of reconstruction, was dropped from the politburo and the govern-
ment in 1949 and subsequently arrested on charges of nationalist
deviation. General Komar at the time of his arrest was quarter-
master general of the armed forces. Previously he had been chief
of army intelligence. He was arrested during the Satellite anti-
Zionist campaign on charges of maintaining foreign espionage
connections and contacts with nationalist deviationists including
Spychalski.
The release of Spychalski and Komar
would be in line with the regime's attempt to gain confidence and
support within the party for new course policies, and the respon-
sibility for their arrest would be among the misdeeds charged to
high officials in the Ministry of Public Security.
WESTERN EUROPE
8. London embassy sees French set on unilateral demarche in Moscow:
French premier Mendes-France is so
determined to carry out a unilateral
demarche in Moscow as a follow-up to
his suggestion at the UN for an East-
es agreemen on ria that he can be deterred only by
"direct personal representation," in the opinion of the American
embassy in London. The embassy notes that at a tripartite con-
sultation on Austria on 1 December the French representative
argued that Mendes-France's address at the UN did not alter the
tripartite position, but was only a harmless "tactical gesture."
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Comment: French Foreign Ministry
officials have also privately depreciated the premier's suggestion
at the UN that an Eastern European security bloc having arms
limitation and control features similar to the projected Western
European Union might be a prelude to general disarmament
agreements.
There are increasing indications that
Mendes-France's ideas on East-West relations are stemming not
from his professional foreign affairs advisers but from Georges
Boris and other members of Ms personal entourage--who believe
that their "realistic" ideas have more appeal to the Russians than
do UN discussions on disarmament.
9 Comment on probable postponement of French debate on Paris
accords:
The demand of the French National
Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee
that assembly debate on the Paris accords
be postponed from 14 to 20 December was
apparently due largely to mounting dis-
satisfaction with the French-German agree-
ment on the Saar.
The committee had been irritated earlier
over the government's delay in formally submitting to it the texts
of the Paris accords, which were finally given to the committee
only last week. This delay, according to a Foreign Ministry
official, was due to the fact that the government felt compelled to
rewrite its "brief� accompanying the Saar agreement text after
the terms of the West German government's draft bill became
known in Paris. The preamble to the German text contains ref-
erences to the provisional character of the settlement which makes
it distasteful to the French.
The Saar agreement concluded in October
was initially regarded in France as a diplomatic victory, and the
American embassy believed it might induce the assembly to accept
the other Paris accords on German rearmament. Revelation of
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the terms of the German bill is greatly diminishing the agree-
ment's value in this respect, however. Postponement of the
debate favors the growing opposition to the Paris accords, but
Mendes- France will probably refuse further delay, if necessary
by calling a vote of confidence on this point. He would probably
win such a vote.
LATIN AMERICA
10. Solution of Honduran presidential succession may be near:
Congressmen of ex-dictator Caria.s'
Nationalist Party will prevent instal-
lation of the recently elected congress
in Honduras on 5 December by boycotting
tile session, The American
embassy in regucigaipa comments that such action, which it believes
probable, would result in continuation in office of the present regime
under President Galvez or Vice President Lozano.
Comment: There are other indications
that Carias would support continuation of the current adminis-
tration, and from various viewpoints this would probably be the
best solution to the deadlock occasioned by the inconclusive
October presidential election. None of the three presidential
candidates received the majority required for popular election in
October. The constitution empowers Congress in such a case to
select the new president, who would normally take office in January.
Lozano, acting president while Galvez
is out of the country, told the embassy on 24 November that if
Congress failed to convene and choose a president, he or Galvez
would assume full powers until a constituent assembly could be
elected to restore constitutional processes. On 1 December
Lozano stated that he foresaw no violence as a result of this
arrangement since it would leave all parties some hope for par-
ticipation in the government and in a national advisory board which
would draft a new constitution.
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