CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00975A001900150001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 5, 2002
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 20, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

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20 March 1955
Copy No. 88
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO. 53
NO CHANGE IN CLASS
^ DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE: 2-010
AUTH: HR 70.2 10 DATE: Rh 90 REVIEWER:
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
State Dept. review completed
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.SUMMARY
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SOVIET UNION
FAR EAST
2. Comment on new Japanese cabinet (gage 3).
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
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4. Iraq reportedly approached to help overthrow Syrian ca ine
(page 5)
5. Comment on differences among Balkan allies (page 6).
EASTERN EUROPE
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7. Comment on 1955 Polish budget (page 7).
WESTERN EUROPE
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I
rea with Communists reportedly sought by Nenni Socialists
(page 9).
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SOVIET UNION
FAR EAST
2. Comment on new Japanese cabinet:
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The new Hatoyama cabinet is composed
exclusively of Democrats, with a number
of hold--overs, and accurately reflects
the balance of power among competing
factions within the Democratic Party.
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The retention of Foreign Minister
Shigemitsu against Hatoyama's wishes, may serve as a brake
on the prime minister's efforts toward accommodation with the
Communist bloc. Hatoyama has already started to undercut
Shigemitsu, - however, by announcing he would consult Arata
Sugihara, his original choice as foreign minister, on the ap-
pointment of the chief Japanese delegate to the Japan-USSR nego-
tiations in New York.
Sugihara has been appointed director
of the Defense Board and, according to Japanese defense officials,
this will have an adverse effect on Japanese rearmament. The
appointment of an able, aggressive welfare minister and the re-
tention of strong personalities in economic posts emphasize the
continuance of the "butter over guns" policy.
Hatoyama's frail health and his party's
minority position in the Diet make it evident that the new govern-
ment will be short-lived. Former prime minister Yoshida's Lib-
erals have pledged co-operation on legislation of mutual interest,
but their action in joining the Socialists to elect a Liberal speaker
and Socialist vice-speaker in the lower house serves notice that
their co-operation will not be automatic.
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25X1 A 4. Iraq reportedly approached to help overthrow Syrian cabinet:
Iraq's acting foreign minister told the
American ambassador in Baghdad on
17 March that his government has been
receiving requests from the president
help desired had not been defined. He asked whether the Syrians
had approached the United States, and urged "sympathetic under-
standing" of such requests.
of Syria and other friendly elements for help in establishing .a
conservative, pro-Iraqi cabinet in Syria.
The Iraqi official said that the kind of
Comment: The Iraqi official's statement
seems to be an indirect bi or American support and suggests
that Iraqi planning for a coup in Syria may have reached an ad-
vanced stage. The Iraqis presumably would first seek to over-
throw the government by parliamentary means and would consider
military intervention only if this effort failed.
Syrian president Atasi implied on 7 March
that he was considering asking Iraq to send troops to Damascus to
block the establishment of Egyptian military control there.
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Comment on differences among Balkan allies:
Apparent differences over the purposes
of the Balkan alliance threaten con-
tinued co-operation among Greece,
Yugoslavia and Turkey.
Turkish prime minister Menderes
asserts that Belgrade 'has consistently
dragged its heels on carrying out the
military aspects of the pact, and he
believes that Yugoslavia may hope, in
the event of war, to be "another World
War II Sweden."
Greece and Yugoslavia, however, express
complete satisfaction with their joint military co-ordination. Am-
bassador Cannon in Athens and Ainbassador Riddleberger, , in.,
Belgrade both believe that Marshal Tito has no illusions that he
can remain neutral.
On the other hand, Greece believes that
Ankara's interest in the military aspect of the tripartite pact is
secondary to its interest in the political advantages of the pact.
The Greeks accuse the Turks also of
having "continuously tried to stall and even subvert" the creation
of the Balkan parliamentary assembly. They probably feel Turkey
has no interest in a purely Balkan entente but intends to use pact
membership to strengthen its influence with the major Western
powers and to enhance its prestige in the Mediterranean and Near
East areas.
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25X1A' Comment on 1955 Polish budget:
The Warsaw broadcast on the 1955 Polish
budget reveals that allocations for nation.l
defense are scheduled to increase -about
12 percent this year--the.. same percentage as Soviet defense alloca-
tions.--in order to "maintain full vigilance in the face of the designs
of imperialist circles, aimed at a revival of German imperialism."
Though total budget allocations will rise
11 percent, the increase in planned defense outlays cannot be at-
tributed solely to the larger over-all size of the budget. Last
year the budget defense allocations showed no increase, while total
budgetary allocations rose by 6.4 percent.
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Finance Minister Dietrich called the: ex-
pansion of heavy industry the-basis of the further development of
the national economy and also placed ''special emphasis on the devel-
opment of agricultural production," as did the recent policy announced
in the Soviet Union.
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Emphasis on consumers' goods pro-
duction will apparently continue through 1955, however, as the
1955 plan calls for a greater increase in the output of consumer
goods than of heavy industrial equipment. An official com-
mentator has stated that these rates of increase are "excep-
tional" and a departure from a "binding principle."
Poland is likely to place primary em-
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rated in 1956.
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9. Break with Communists reportedly sought by Nenni Socialists:
A movement is under way in Italy to
separate the Nenni Socialists from the
Communists,
Participants are leaders of the Nenni
Socialists, Democratic Socialists, Republicans, various splinter
left-of- center parties, and the left wing of the Liberals. The
aim is to -find, through the creation of a political alternative to
the present center government coalition, a solution to the current
impasse which prevents the government from acting on pressing
problems.
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Comment: The Scelba government's days
appear numbered because E1 a to achieve concrete results on
its reform program, and a turn to the left is a distinct possibility.
Nenni has reportedly declared he would support any government
committed to a more social-minded policy than the present one.
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the Communist Party is encouraging a break with the Nenni
oculists: Nenni Socialist participation in a left-of-center gov-
ernment would serve Communist purposes by undermining Italy's
pro-Western ties..
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