CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00975A002500070001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 1, 1956
• Content Type: REPORT

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CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO.
NO CHANGE IN CLAS6.
ED
i DECLASSIFI
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S
NEXT REVIEW DATE:
AUTH: H$ ;0,
DATO,
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
DIA review(s) completed.
se 2( U0P/S f "79To
1 April 1956
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"IV
CONTENTS
MIKOYAN DISCUSSES SOVIET ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
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2. CAMBODIAN CROWN PRINCE'S POWER SEEN THREATENED
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3. GREEK OPPOSITION SEEKS ALL-PARTY GOVERNMENT
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4. BRITAIN PREPARED TO GIVE SINGAPORE QUALIFIED
SELF-GOVERNMENT
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THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
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1. MIKOYAN DISCUSSES SOVIET ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
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In talks with Indian planning officials
and press representatives, Soviet
first deputy premier Mikoyan is re-
ported to have discussed Soviet eco-
nomic problems and offered objective
advice on Indian problems.
In discussing agriculture, Mikoyan
stressed the post-1953 Soviet policy of providing higher
incomes for farmers. He advised the Indians against
heavy mechanization of agriculture, hitherto a cardinal
point in Soviet farm policy, because of India's large sur-
plus of manpower.
Mikoyan said the minimum wage for urban
workers would be raised this year by nearly one third, con-
firming indications that the coming wage reform will attempt
to reduce the extreme spread of the present system, as well
as to sharpen its incentive features. Assistance to the lowest-
income group is particularly necessary at this time, when the
practice of annual retail price cuts has given way to unpubli-
cized increases in state prices of a number of goods.
In disclaiming Soviet perfection and deny-
ing that Soviet methods are universally applicable, Mikoyan
appears to have impressed his hearers with his frankness,
his avoidance of dogma and the USSR's willingness to grant
that there are "many roads to socialism:
(Concurred in by ORR)
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2. CAMBODIAN CROWN PRINCE'S POWER SEEN THREATENED
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Dap Chhuon, a powerful provincial com-
mander in Cambodia, in a confidential
letter. informed . Ambassador McClintock
he was "awaiting a favorable opportunity
to frustrate e po icy" of the present Cambodian government
and "declare a diplomatic rupture with Communist countries:'
McClintock, who describes Chhuon as a
key figure in Cambodia, comments that he regards the letter
as evidence that Sihanouk's power is being seriously threatened
for the first time. The ambassador says there is other evi-
dence that, for varying reasons, certain party stalwarts are
now challenging Sihanouk.
Comment Dap Chhuon, who led a rebel force when
the French were in control, is now a colonel
in the royal army and controls the palace guard. He has a rep-
utation for both ruthlessness and probity and has hitherto been
regarded as devoted to Sihanouk and the royal family.
The explanation given for Sihanouk's most
recent resignation from the premiership, which referred to
pressures from Thailand, South Vietnam and the United States,
was apparently designed to rally support for his neutralism.
He is believed to have widespread popular support but has prob-
ably alienated some powerful politicians- -not only by his neu-
tralism but by his one-man rule and political maneuvering.
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3., GREEK OPPOSITION SEEKS ALL-PARTY GOVERNMENT
The new Greek parliament which con-
venes on 2 April will probably bog
down immediately in a dispute over
whether Prime Minister Karamanlis
shouict form an an-party government to demonstrate na-
tional solidarity on the Cyprus issue. Karamanlis report
edly has invited only Sophocles Venizelos' Liberal Demo-
cratic Union, the largest opposition party, to participate
with his National Radical Union in the government, but
Venizelos has declined on the ground that all parties should
be invited.
Venizelos is reported, however, to be
impressed by the attitude of the Communists, who appear
ready to accept almost any terms for parliamentary co-
operation with the center parties. Spokesmen for the
Communist-front EDA, which has 18 deputies and perhaps
26 leftist allies in the 300-seat parliament, have offered to
adopt "a most reasonable and moderate" program,
A refusal by Karaman is
to widen his present government is likely to bring about
united opposition from the center and the left and persistent
efforts to whittle away his parliamentary margin of 30 seats.
The parliamentary session is also likely
to degenerate quickly into demagogic competition for primacy
in devotion to the cause of Cyprus, thereby inviting strong
reactions from Britain and Turkey.
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4. BRITAIN PREPARED TO GIVE SINGAPORE QUALIFIED
SELF-GOVERNMENT
wealth without prejudicing essential British strategic require-
ments.
The British Colonial Office has indicated
that in the negotiations beginning 23 April
Britain will concede as much as possible
to Singapore chief minister Marshall's
expected demand for virtual independence within the Common-
According to the American embassy in
London, Britain will insist that the Singapore governor have
continued access to local security information and have un-
qualified authority to "step in" whenever he believes the situ-
ation warrants. Britain will also insist on retaining control
of defense and foreign relations. On the other hand, the
British would, if necessary, agree to a fully elective execu-
tive council and an enlarged legislative council, so Marshall
can return home with what he can call "self-government:'
In any event the British feel they cannot
withdraw completely from Singapore, _ for fear that the colony
would almost automatically become a Communist outpost.
Comment Britain's immediate concern is apparently
to avoid a collapse of the forthcoming nego-
tiations that might force the reimposition of direct British rule
in Singapore. The British are likely to have difficulty, however,
in persuading Marshall that their proposals are not a retreat
from their previous moral commitment to him to grant Singapore
complete self-government in 1.956.
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THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
(Information as of 1700, 1. April)
Egypt has called for an urgent meeting
of the Egyptian-Israeli Mixed Armistice Commission over a
charge that an Israeli patrol killed two Arabs and captured an
Arab child in the Gaza area. Israel claims that Jordanian in-
filtrators ambushed a police car and wounded a civilian.
The American ambassador in Israel be-
lieves the position of the leftist coalition party members on
seeking arms from the USSR has been seriously undermined
by a recent Izvestia article mentioning "war hysteria in Israel"
and "open threats" of Israeli leaders to initiate military opera-
tions against the Arabs.
Syrian prime minister azzi tOICL m
dor Moose on 28 March that Syria would consider it had been
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attacked if Israel resumed work on the Jordan River diversion
canal in defiance of the UN Truce Supervisor's ruling.
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The American ambassador in Jordan be-
lieves that not only may Jordan soon be lost to the West, but
that its entry into the Egyptian-Syrian-Saudi camp can influence
the future of Lebanon and as well as Iraq's adherence to the
Baghdad pact. The ambassador also suggests that King Hussain
may be dethroned by the end of the year.
Recently mobilized Israeli vehicles and per-
sonnel may have been dispatched as reinforcements to the North-
ern C mmand,
The gradual mobilization in Israel may have brought
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Israeli forces, including the paramilitary Nahal groups, to ap-
proximately 120,000 by the end of March.
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