CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00975A002000430001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 30, 2002
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 26, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

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May
1955
Copy No. 9.4
100
26
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO. 4-1 Z
NO CHANGE !N CLASS.
(.] DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE: s r~0~
AUTH: HR 70-2
DATE:.,,~.'d.&Q REVIEWER:I
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
State Dept. review completed
se 20f
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SUMMARY
975$002000430001-1
FAR EAST
Japan denies intent to withdraw from GATT negotiations (page 3).
SOUTH ASIA
2. Afghan defense minister says :mobilization has been abandoned
(page 3).
WESTERN EUROPE
4. Conservatives seen winning British election by narrow margin
(page 6).
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Comment on establishment of Soviet State Committee of Labor
and Wages (page 7),
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FAR EAST
1. Japan denies intent to withdraw from GATT negotiations:
An official of the Japanese Foreign
Ministry has stated categorically that
Japan has no intention of withdrawing
from negotiations now being conducted
as a preliminary to Japan's accession to the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
The American embassy in Tokyo re-
ports, however, that Japan is concerned and probably resentful
over the large number of countries which may invoke Article 35,
which could deny most-favored-nation treatment to Japan.
Comment: An earlier report reaching
the embassy stated that Japan ways planning to abandon its efforts
to join GATT because of domestic opposition to tariff cuts and.be-
cause of the large number of nations planning to invoke Article 35
of the agreement.
Japan appears to be assured of the
necessary 23 votes for full membership.
SOUTH ASIA
2. Afghan defense minister says mobilization has been abandoned:
Afghan defense minister Mohammad Arif
stated on 23 May that Afghan troop mobili-
zation had been abandoned,
Comment: If troops called to active duty
since 4 May are actually being di,,banded, it would be an admis-
sion of Afghan inability to maintain a strong front against Pakistan
for any appreciable length of time and would materially weaken
Kabul's international position. It would also further weaken con-
fidence in Daud, since as prime minister and as a former war
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minister he should have been able to estimate more accurately
his country's ability to withstand the strain of mobilization--es-
pecially when mobilization is used as a political weapon.
There have been several reports that
the Afghan administration and economy were disrupted by the re-
tention of . conscripts. on active duty.
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WESTERN EUROPE
4. Conservatives seen winning British election by narrow margin:
The consensus in Britain is that the Con-
servative Party will win the general
elections on 26 May with about the same
majority it now holds or with a slight
increase.
According to the American embassy in
London, this estimate is based on the belief that few voters have
switched from their 1951 choices, that any Conservative gains re-
sulting from the redistribution of seats may be balanced by losses
caused by incursions of the Liberal Party, and that Labor absten-
tions due to apathy may be canceled out by Conservative abstentions
resulting from overconfidence.
Comment: A Gallup poll published on
24 May gives the Conservatives s4-percent lead over Labor, but
also shows 12.5 percent of the people in the "don't know" column.
Judging from past elections, more than half of the "uncommitted"
votes will go Labor. Professional pollsters generally estimate
the Conservatives' actual lead at only 1. 5 percent, a margin which
could give them a majority of between 30 and 35 seats.
26 May 55
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6. Comment on establishment of Soviet State Committee of Labor
and Wages:
On 24 May the USSR created under
L. M. Kaganovich, one of the top Soviet
leaders and long the foremost industrial
trouble shooter within the.. Soviet hierarchy, a state committee on
labor and wages. Kaganovich's appointment underscores the
urgency with which Soviet leaders view the labor situation,
There has been a progressive worsening
of the Soviet labor situation since at least the advent of the Fifth
Five-Year Plan. The deterioration of the labor program has
taken the following apparent form- consecutive overfulfillment
of the rate of entry into the labor force; chronic overexpenditure
of the wage fund; until 1954, annual declines in rate of increase
in labor productivity; and failure to undertake prompt revision
of wage and output norms in the presence of major changes in
technology.
More than anything else, the creation of
the Kaganovich committee represents an effort to improve labor
productivity through direct rationalization of the labor force struc-
ture as opposed to 1953 plan revisions which were aimed at im-
proving productivity by indirect incentive measures.
This rationalization may well have the
effect of providing still another anti -inflationar measure.
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