CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1956/02/12

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03179143
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: October 25, 2019
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2019
• Publication Date: February 12, 1956

1 , Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
re60,
TOP SECRET
0
CURRENT
/ INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
OOUMENT NO 2.t
NO CHANGE IN CLASS in
I i DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE: 2.010
DATE; 14 Mo. W REVIEWER:
AUTH: HR 70-2
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
TOP SECRET
Copy No.
103
3.3(h)(2)
3.5(c)
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
Amme
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
1 1..."I �J 1 ik
T4es Nut
CONTENTS
1. EGYPT TO URGE OTHER ARAB STATES TO CONSIDER
JOHNSTON PLAN FURTHER (page 3).
2. USSR TO SET UP ATOMIC RESEARCH LAB IN CAIRO
(page 4).
3. ADDITIONAL TROOPS MAY HAVE MOVED TO EAST CHINA
RECENTLY (page 5).
4. LARGE CHINESE COMMUNIST PURCHASE FROM BELGIUM
(page 6).
5. TUNISIAN BEY REQUESTS NEW NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE
FOR GREATER INDEPENDENCE (page 7).
6. MOLLET URGED TO BE TOUGH WITH BOTH SIDES IN
ALGERIA (page 8).
THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
(page 9)
12 Feb 56 Current Intelligence Bulletin
Page 2
TOP SECRET
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
---SEeRgT-
1, EGYPT TO URGE OTHER ARAB STATES TO CONSIDER
JOHNSTON PLAN FURTHER
Egypt is undertaking conversations
with the other Arab states to urge
that "further consideration" be given
the "Johnston plan" for the develop-
n river valley, according to Egyptian
foreign minister Fawzi. In expressing his concern over
the crisis which would result if Israel resumed its own
Banat Yacov canal project to divert water from the Jor-
dan, Fawzi told the American charg�n 9 February, "It
is not that we are afraid, but there is no use in having a
fight if we can avoid it."
Fawzi said his government expects
difficulty only with Syria. He expected talks to open
with Jordan on 10 February and with Saudi Arabia "very
soon:'
Comment Prime Minister Nasr promised Am-
bassador Johnston last fall that Egypt
would try to bring the other Arab states to accept the
regional development plan within a few months. During
the same round of negotiations, the Israelis stated that
unless the Arabs showed signs by 1 March of accepting
the Johnston plan Israel would feel free to proceed with
its work at Banat Yacov. Syria recently stated it would
fight if Israel resumed digging.
Egypt's prospects of gaining Arab ac-
ceptance of the plan in the near future appear doubtful,
but "further consideratidn" by the Arabs would cut the
ground from under the Israeli contention that the Arab
states have shown no significant interest and might thus
serve at least to postpone a crisis over the Banat Yacov
issue. It is clear that Egypt's leaders do not feel ready for
war at this time, and fear Syrian action might precipitate
hostilities.
12 Feb 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 3
5; Frrriorr.
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
1 I
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
. � ____ ....... 1 I
2. USSR TO SET UP ATOMIC RESEARCH LAB IN CAIRO
The USSR signed an agreement on
10 February to help Egypt set up and
equip a nuclear physics laboratory in
Cairo. Soviet atomic specialists and
sent to Cairo, and Egyptian scientists
and specialists will be trained in Russian research insti-
tutes. The USSR will supply Egypt with equipment and
instruments for carrying out geological exploration.
The agreement was signed on the Soviet
side by A. N. Lavrishchev, a deputy chief of the Chief
Directorate for Economic Relations, the organization charged
with implementing the Kremlin's aid program in underdevel-
oped countries. Negotiations apparently began in July 1955,
when the Egyptian ambassador in Moscow
revealed that the Soviet Union was prepared to give Egypt
"technical and scientific" help in developing atomic energy
for peaceful purposes.
There have been numerous indications
that the USSR intends to extend this type of assistance to
Other non-bloc states. Indonesian ambassador Subandrio
in Moscow reported to Djakarta on 12 September that the
USSR had offered to train Indonesians in this field. Premier
Bulganin, in his 6 February reply to questions from a Paki-
stani editor, expressed willingness to share the USSR's knowl-
edge of peaceful applications of atomic energy with Pakistan.
The first actual agreement on nuclear co-operation with a
non-Orbit state was reached recently with Yugoslavia.
(Prepared jointly with ORR)
12 Feb 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 4
TOP SECRET
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
I Aftp.
30 ADDITIONAL TROOPS MAY HAVE MOVED TO EAST
CHINA RECENTLY
12 Feb 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 5
TOP SECRET
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
- ALAVA vaa
.4140 *me
4. LARGE CHINESE COMMUNIST PURCHASE
FROM BELGIUM
In announcing on 10 February a
contract to buy 425,000 tons of
Belgian chemical fertilizer, Pei-
ping has dramatized to Western
European and Japanese businessmen the potential mar-
ket Communist China would afford for industrial products
if trade restrictions were reduced. This single contract,
in the amount of $25,000,000 to $30,000,000, is nearly ten
percent of the value of Peiping's imports from non-Com-
munist countries in 1955.
The Belgian businessman who signed
the contract in Peiping termed it the "biggest single chem-
ical fertilizer contract ever made" and said "there will be
�a new contract each year and a bigger one too:' Peiping
quotes him as deriding the "US-imposed embargo" which
"many" businessmen in Belgium and other European coun-
tries want to see lifted or at least reduced.
(Prepared by ORR)
12 Feb 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 6
-SECRET--
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
Aft "L. UPI I" alk
5. TUNISIAN BEY REQUESTS NEW NEGOTIATIONS
WITH FRANCE FOR GREATER INDEPENDENCE
The Tunisian bey informed the
French high commissioner in
Tunis on 10 February that he
wished to open new negotiations
with France immediately with
the aim of fuller independence
for Tunisia, according to the
American consul general in Tunis.
The newly appointed director general for Tunisian and
Moroccan affairs informed the American embassy on
10 February that French-Tunisian negotiations would be-
gin soon, "possibly within two weeks."
The Tunisian cabinet wants to reach
an agreement in principle with Paris regarding a Tunisian
national army and diplomatic representation before the
campaign for Tunisian general elections, scheduled for
25 March, gets under way.
Comment Preparatory talks looking toward
these negotiations were held earlier
this month with Habib Bourghiba, president of the mod-
erate Tunisian Neo-Destour party. These new demands
by the Tunisians were considered inevitable when Paris
recognized in November that Morocco might regain its
independence whereas Tunisia had been awarded only lim-
ited autonomy by the French-Tunisian conventions of June
1955.
France prob-
ably would agree to a token Tunisian army and a few Tuni-
sian diplomatic representatives within the French diplomatic
establishment. These added concessions should strengthen
popular support for Bourghiba and his moderate Neo-Destour
party in the general elections.
12 Feb 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 7
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
16. 6116...!
6, MOLLET URGED TO BE TOUGH WITH BOTH SIDES
IN ALGERIA
The mayor of Algiers, Jacques
Chevallier, believes French-
Algerian negotiations are out of
the question in the present atmos-
phere, and thate only way to recapture confidence
of both French and Moslems would be to "wield a
bludgeon with complete impartiality." Chevallier told
the American consul general in Algiers on 9 February
that he had urged Premier Mollet not to make any more
vague proposals, which would be twisted by both sides
to the further exacerbation of the situation.
Comment Chevallier wants to play the leading
role in a plan giving Algeria a fed-
erated status within a revised French Union. He hopes
to satisfy Moslem demands by granting eventual equality.
Meanwhile, the attitude of moderate
Algerian Moslems has hardened substantially. The "Ac-
tion Committee of the 16," a coalition of elected Moslem
representatives, now demands that Mollet obtain approval
from it and rebel leaders for any policy proposed for
Algeria.
The French government has banned
demonstrations in both Paris and Algiers. The National
Assembly is aggravating the situation, however, by va-
cating the seats of Poujadist deputies, and unless Mollet
can produce an Algerian solution very soon, Poujade may
use the issue as an excuse for violence like that which
greeted Mollet in Algiers. Such violence would enable
the Communists to play up the fascist threat in their ef-
fort to win Socialist backing for a popular front.
12 Feb 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 8
SECRET-
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143
TOP SECRET 4004
THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
(Information as of 1700, 12 February)
The American embassy in Tel Aviv re-
ports that from Prime Minister Ben Gurion down through all
strata of the Israeli public the conviction is held that at this
moment nothing can give Israel real security except arms
qualitatively equal to those Egypt is receiving from the So-
viet bloc. The embassy believes that this conviction is based
partly on recognition of the time lapse which would necessar-
ily occur bet ween an Egyptian attack and intervention by the
United Nations In this connection a high Israeli official re-
cently stated Israel must assume that a Soviet veto would
paralyze the UN, and that the fortuitous circumstance of So-
viet absence from the Security Council at the beginning of the
Korean war would not be repeated. (Item 1, page 3, deals
with Egyptian moves to a VP1't 2 er.ca.ct micar Vionat Vi ,w 1
On 10 February, Israeli Hebrew-language
newspapers printed reports attributed to an American paper
that France would sell 12 Mystere jet fighters to Israel and
that the United States had no objection to this sale. The French
government had asked Israel to maintain complete secrecy re-
garding this sale; publication of the news will raise a storm in
Arab capitals.
the Egyptian military mission in India has purchased
s to be shipped in March or April.
three shipments of military equip-
ment from Czechoslovakia had arrived via KLM in the last ten
days. the first shipment was submachine guns. This
is the first report that the materiel for which the Syrian mission
has been negotiating in Prague has arrived in Syria
12 Feb 56
Current Intelligence Bulletin Page 9
Approved for Release: 2019/10/23 C03179143