CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1956/03/18

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03161857
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: October 25, 2019
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2019
• Publication Date: March 18, 1956

Approved for Release: 2019/10/21
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CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
C03161857
TOP SECRET
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18 March 1956
Copy No� ItH
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DOCUMENT NO.
NO CKANGE IN CLASS a
DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE: ,-0 10
AUTH: HR 70-2
DATE: It( t At-VIEWER
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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CONTENTS
1. USSR PLANNING DISARMAMENT MEETING IN MOSCOW
(page 3).
2. JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER WILLING TO TALK WITH
CHOU (page 4)
3. FRENCH SETTLERS IN ALGERIA THREATEN TO LYNCH
MOSLEMS UNDER DEATH SENTENCE
(page 5).
4. POSITION OF HUNGARIAN PARTY LEADER RAKOSI
APPEARS THREATENED page 6) .
5. PREMIER MOLLET CONCERNED OVER ANTI-AMERICAN
SENTIMENT IN FRANCE (page 7).
18 Mar 56
* * * *
THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
(page 8)
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 2
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1. USSR PLANNING DISARMAMENT MEETING IN MOSCOW
The Soviet Union is planning to hold a
"small unofficial meeting" to discuss
disarmament in Moscow beginning on
29 March and has invited representa-
tives of a variety of political parties
and viewpoints from several European and Asian countries.
An invitation
stated that acceptances
had been received from individuals in France, Britain, India,
Japan, Italy, Belgium and other countries.
The invitation promised that no commu-
niqu�ould be issued to the press without unanimous con-
sent of the participants.
Comment
The individuals reported to have accepted
range from fellow travelers to conserva-
tives.
Moscow is apparently trying to make the
meeting more widely representative and more respectable
by inviting anti-Communists as well as some responsible
party leaders. It is doubtful that Dehler or Social Democratic
Party leader 011enhauer, who may have been invited, will go
unless other responsible anti-Communist leaders are invited
and accept.
The Soviet representatives at the confer-
ence will probably seek to win endorsement of Ithrushchev's
three-point interim disarmament plan, which includes the
cessation of atomic tests.
18 Mar 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 3
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2. JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER WILLING TO TALK
WITH CHOU
Prime Minister Hatoyama told an upper
house committee on 15 March that he is
willing to meet Chinese Communist pre-
mier Chou En-lai to discuss the estab-
lishment of closer relations between Tokyo and Peiping,
which "everyone desires." Hatoyama emphasized that the
"difficulty" is Japan's treaty with Nationalist China, a prob-
lem which he said could be removed by Chinese Communist
"recognition" of Taipei.
A Foreign Ministry official has informed
the American embassy in Tokyo that Peiping probably would
respond quickly to Hatoyama's remarks, possibly by making
some "major proposition" just prior to Secretary of State
Dulles' visit to Tokyo.
Comment A spokesman for the Peiping regime re-
newed on 16 March the Chinese Commu-
nist offer to discuss the normalization of relations, although
he did not mention Hatoyama's remarks. Chou En-lai may
soon follow up this offer, and, in order to engage the Japa-
nese prime minister in such talks, Chou may refrain tempo-
rarily from denouncing Hatoyama's propoftl for two Chinas.
Virtually all Japanese believe that if
Japan is to achieve economic independence and assume its
rightful role as a power in the Far East, normal diplomatic
relations with Communist China are necessary. Tokyo's
desire for relatOns with Peiping is strengthened by its be-
lief that the Chinese Nationalist regime will not last more
than two more years and certainly will not survive Chiang
Kai-shek's death.
18 Mar 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 4
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4- -SEChaEl
3. FRENCH SETTLERS IN ALGERIA THREATEN TO LYNCH
MOSLEMS UNDER DEATH SENTENCE
An action group of French settlers in
Algeria has sent a barrage of letters
and telegrams to French president
Coty threatening to lynch the 120 Mos-
lem terrorists now under death sentence
in Algeria if the executions are not car-
ried out by 21 March,
The French
minister in Algiers is unwilling to go through with the ex-
ecutions, but doubts that his police would defend the prisons
against the settlers.
French settlers
in Algiers fear that the Algerian National Liberation Front
plans to attack isolated farms on 21 March. They claim that
as many as 6,000 settlers may be killed, and predict large-
scale retaliation by the French against urban Moslems.
Comment
The Liberation Front has distributed
leaflets warning that for every "patriot"
executed the Front would execute two persons in retaliation.
The recent attacks in and near the city
of Algiers and the intensified military campaign now under
way increase the probability of major clashes between the
settlers and Algerian Moslems.
18 Mar 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 5
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4. POSITION OF HUNGARIAN PARTY LEADER RAKOSI
APPEARS THREATENED
sti
Reported dissension within the Hungar-
ian party's central committee over the
status of ex-premier Imre Nagy indi-
cates that Party Secretary Rakosi is
iculty in asserting his leadership.
Nagy has petitioned the
central committee to withdraw the charges against him
which led to his conviction for "rightist deviation" a year
ago. The request prompted "heated discussion" within the
committee at its meeting on 12 and 13 March.
aving
Reportedly Istvan Kovacs, Nagy's chief
supporter in the central committee, argued that Rakosi's
proposal to ignore Nagy's request was impossible in view of
statements at the Soviet congress. Kovacs, a politburo
member who accompanied Rakosi to the Soviet 20th Party
Congress, insisted that Rakosi had no right to decide the
matter alone. Rakosi apparently attempted to defend him-
self on the ground that the Soviet congress had endorsed
his policies as leader of the Hungarian party.
The defensive statements contained in
Rakosi's report on the congress tend to support reports of
division within he central committee and to indicate that
the recent Soviet party congress has strengthened the oppo-
sition of nationalist elements within the party. Since he
ousted Nagy, Rakosi has had difficulty in controlling nation-
alist elements within the party despite Moscow's support
of his leadership. Even a gradual rehabilitation of Nagy
would seriously threaten Rakosi's leadership of the party.
18 Mar 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 6
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5. PREMIER MOLLET CONCERNED OVER ANTI-AMERICAN
SENTIMENT IN FRANCE
In a conversation on 10 March, Premier
Mollet told American UN delegate Lodge
that he was disturbed by the anti-American
sentiment the Algerian situation has stim-
ulated in France, not merely among the
Communists but also among certain elements of the French
right which sought to find a scapegoat "abroad" for their trou-
bles in Algeria.
Mollet protested that although he had no
cause for complaint over the official attitude of the United
States government, he did complain that many American busi-
nessmen and working-level officials had caused friction by
giving unsolicited advice. Another factor in French-American
misunderstanding was the "blanket stand" taken by the Ameri-
can press against what it calls "colonialism." He said the
most hard hitting passages in its editorials are picked up and
reprinted by the French press.
Comment Other reports suggest that anti-American
sentiment in France is considerably more
widespread than Mollet indicated. It stems in part from the
French belief that American influence in Vietnam has sup-
planted France without regard to French interests there, and
that a similar pattern is in the making in North Africa.
According to a 17 March press report, the
French Secretary of State for Operations in Algeria criticized
the United States' "long silence" and said he expects an "un-
equivocal" declaration of its solidarity with France on the
Algerian crisis.
18 Mar 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 7
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THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
(Information as of 1700, 18 March)
Egypt charged on 17 and 18 March that
Israeli patrols killed two Arabs in the Moghazi refugee camp
southwest of Gaza. Israel has charged that Egyptian "infil-
trators" have repeatedly crossed into Israeli territory from
the Gaza strip, and that Egyptian patrols made a series of
attacks on the Israeli settlement of Kissufim, near the Gaza
strip. Israel also charged that Jordanians scattered fire into
the Israeli sector of Jerusalem near the Jaffa Gate. (Press)
Syrian military authorities notified Cairo
that the Israelis have been carrying out air re-
connaissance "day and night" over the Syrian front.
Britain has agreed to supply Syria with
two Meteor Mark 9 jet fighter planes modified to take Hispano-
Suiza 804 guns and provided with the standard photographic
equipment.
Yemen has requested some type
of arms or,military equipment from Egypt.
18 Mar 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 8
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