CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1955/05/08

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03192928
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: September 20, 2019
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2019
• Publication Date: May 8, 1955

Approved TOP SEC
for Release: 2019/09/17
8 May 1955
Copy No. 94
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO
NO CHANGE IN CLASS.
El DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE: _20/0
AUTH: HR 70-2
DATE:Sit/8Q. _REVIEWER:
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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3.3(h)(2)
3.5(c)
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SUMMARY
GENERAL
1. USSR appears ready to end London disarmament talks (page 3).
FAR EAST
2, Nehru has twice requested Peiping to release American airmen
(page 3).
3. Nehru judged to believe early hostilities in China area unlikely
(page 4).
SOUTH ASIA
4.
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
5. Arab leaders fear Communist takeover in Syria (page 6).
6. Showdown in Egyptian council reported imminent (page 6).
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GENERAL
USSR appears ready to end London disarmament talks:
Soviet ambassador Malik made it clear
at the UN disarmament subcommittee
talks in London on 5 May that the USSR
is not willing to compromise on any
point and will accept no disarmament schedule but its own. He
insisted that the Western position is unacceptable because it
provides for the prohibition of nuclear weapons too late in the
program and it gives the control organ "improper powers" to
interfere in the domestic affairs of the signatory powers.
Soviet officials at London have suggested
informally to Western officials on three occasions in the last two
weeks the possibility of recessing the talks, with Malik on the
latest occasion making it clear that the only problem was that no
power wanted to bear the blame for a break-off.
Comment: Moscow apparently considers
that it is gaining no substantial propaganda benefit from the London
talks. Moscow probably expects to shift the disarmament question
to the level of a foreign ministers' conference, as indicated in
Soviet propaganda and implied by a remark of Mikovan during the
Moscow talks with Austrian leaders.
FAR EAST
2. Nehru has twice requested Peiping to release American airmen:
Indian prime minister Nehru told Ambas-
sador Cooper on 5 May that he had written
to Chou En-lai several weeks before the
Bandung conference requesting the release
isoned in China. Nehru again raised the
question when he and Chou met in Rangoon enroute to Bandung, and
Chou said Peiping would consider the matter further on his return.
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Nehru also extracted from Chou an
admission that he did not believe the United States government
sabotaged the Indian airliner which crashed on the way to Bandung
on 11 April. Chou said he thought the Chinese Nationalists were
guilty,
Comment: This is the first indication
that Nehru has actively urged the release of the airmen in recent
months. India took considerable pains to demonstrate its neu-
trality in arranging for the visit of UN secretary general Hammar-
skjold to Peiping in this connection last January, and has been re-
ported unwilling, because Hammarskjold has failed thus far to
achieve the release of the airmen, to make further approaches to
China.
Nehru's remarks suggest that he is will-
ing to press China on various matters more strongly than is gen-
erally believed.
The Chinese Communists will presumably
continue to charge the United States with ultimate responsibility in
the airliner incident, on the grounds that the Chinese Nationalist
government is an American instrument. Evidence is still inconclu-
sive as to whether the Chinese Communists themselves sabotaged
the plane.
. Nehru judged to believe early hostilities in China area unlikely:
Indian prime minister Nehru seems to be-
lieve, on the basis of his questioning of
Chou En-lai at the Bandung conference
last month, that the Chinese Communists
Cs soon. Nehru told Ambassador Cooper
that, while he did not obtain any definite statement of Chinese Com-
munist intentions, Chou said, "We are not engaged in hostilities,
but Chiang Kai-shek is sending planes over China."
Comment: Chou En-lai's bid on 23 April
for Sino-American negotiations suggested in itself an intention to
refrain from major military action while the possibilities for nego-
tiations were being explored. Small-scale military action may be re-
sumed at any time, however, in order to keep up some degree of
pressure for negotiations.
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SOUTH ASIA
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NEAR EAST - AFRICA
5. Arab leaders fear Communist takeover in Syria:
Charles Malik, Lebanese ambassador
to the United States, told the State
Department on 4 May that he had re-
ceived a personal message from Faris
al Khouri, a former Syrian prime minister, urging that the Arab
and Western powers take immediate action to prevent a Commu-
nist takeover in Syria.
Malik said his independent assessment
confirms the fears expressed by Khouri that the Communists
might eventually seize power by means of the "united-front" tech-
nique. Malik believes that the combination of the Arab Socialist-
Resurrectionist Party (ASRP) and the Communists is likely to
win the present struggle for power in Syria.
Comment: These fears, or substantially
similar ones, have also been expressed recently by Syrian presi-
dent Masi, Lebanese president Chamoun, and Iraq's minister to
Lebanon, Ahmad al Rawi.
These Arab leaders are probably ex-
aggerating the situation, but the power of the ASRP, which has
apparently been infiltrated by the Communists, is growing as a
result of the increasing instability in the Syrian government.
6. Showdown in Egyptian council reported imminent:
A showdown between Egypt's Prime Min-
ister Nasr and Minister of National
Guidance Salah Salim is "coming soon,"
and may result in Salim's resignation or
dismissal,
The prime minister is reported to be
"most concerned" over Salim's "extremist attitudes and intran-
sigency."
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Comment: Salah Salim Nasr's strong-
est rival, is believed to represent the generally anti-Western
sentiment of many of the "Free Officers"--the main source of
the regime's army support. In view of the numerous domestic
and foreign problems facing the regime, Nasr would be unlikely
to move against Salim unless confident of adequate support for
such a move in the Revolutionary Command Council and the army.
Accordingly, Nasr may adopt an increas-
ingly independent position in his relations with the West in his
efforts to undercut Salim and prepare for a possible showdown.
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