CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1951/05/08

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02003058
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: March 18, 2019
• Document Release Date: March 28, 2019
• Publication Date: May 8, 1951

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8 May 1951
Copy No. CT--
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO 1 /
NO CHANGE IN CLASS. )1(
I DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANCED TO: TS A
NEXT REVIEW DATE:
AUTH: HR 70-Al
DATE. rt_di_xdin. REVIEWER:
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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SUMMARY
GENERAL
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9. Oil company suspends monthly payments to Iran (page 7).
10. UK Foreign Secretary displays frustration over Iranian oil question
(page 10).
WESTERN EUROPE
11. Comment on Austrian presidential election (page 8).
3.3(h)(2)
12. French Communists plan to gain full control of railway unions (page 9)n
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� GENERAL
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9, 911 comRany suspends monthly payments to Iran:
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A senior Foreign Office official has informed US 3.3(h)(2)
Embassy London that the Anglo-Iranian Oil Compa-
ny (AIOC) has withheld its current monthly advance
of 2 million pounds on royalties promised Iran
under a special AIOC agreement with ex-Prime Minister Razmara,. The
Foreign Office representative denied any intention to apply pressure on
Iran at present, asserting that the oil company's action was necessitated
simply by the Iranian Finance Minister's insistence on considering the
company's recent agreement with Razmara as not binding and all payments
made under it as merely in settlement of past Iranian claims against the
company.
Comment: In February the AIOC agreed to give the
Razmara government an additional advance of 2 million pounds a month
for the balance of 1951. While the Finance Minister's action is not surpris-
ing in view of the current chauvinism in Iran, it does not take into account
Iran's current economic difficulties, which include a serious trade stagna-
tion and a current government budgetary deficit amounting to some 30
million dollars. The Iranian Government seems to expect that the nationali-
zation of the company will immediately bring in sufficient revenue to solve
Its economic dilemma.
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10. JJK Foreign Secretary_displays frustration over Iranian oil question:
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UK Foreign Secretary Morrison described himself
in a frank 4 May conversation with US Ambassador
Gifford about the Iranian situation as feeling
caught between an American effort to "order me
-about" and the UK's inability to come to grips with the Iranians on the 3.3(h)(2)
oil questron. Morrison reviewed British approaches to former Prime
Ministers Razinara and Ala. 'Bre first of these approaches he saw as
thwarted lay assassination and the second by Ala's failure to present
the British proposals to the IVIajlis. He said that attempts are now being
made to deal with Prime Minister Mossadeq, a "moderate spirit," but
hinted at the possibility of economic and "even some military" retaliation.
Ambassador Gifford doubts that either the Foreign Secretary or the rest
of the Foreign Office has grasped the US contention that, if for no other
reason than to help the Iranians save face, it is tactically important to
give "unequivocal lip service" to nationalization.
Comment: A day earlier a senior Foreign Office
representative indicated to the US that the UK was at this stage trying
mainly to correct the misconceptions of Mossadeq, whom the British
Ambassador to Iran had found "ludicrously misinformed" about "matters
of fact" concerning the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's operations. Both
the Foreign Secretary's discussion of British attempts to negotiate with
Mossadeq's predecessors and the comments of Foreign Office officials
underscore the fact that the British have failed to comprehend the extent
to which the oil problem is now an emotional and not an economic issue
in Iran.
WESTERN EUROPE
11. Comment on Austrian presidential election:
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The returns in Austria's presidential election on
6 May indicate a small decrease in popular support
for the coalition governinentL#hich is composed
of the People's Party and the Socialist Party.
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Rightist candidate Breitner, who had the backing of the League of the
Independents, captured over 15 percent of the vote, largely at the expense
of the Catholic conservative People's Party, whereas the League received
only 12 percent in the last national elections in 1949.
Comment: Although Breitner's following undoubt-
edly includes many ex-Nazis, Breitner himself did not campaign on any-
thing resembling a Nazi or even a pan-German platform. A good
percentage of his followers were probably independent voters unwilling
to cast a ballot for either of the coalition parties.
12. French Communists plan to gain full control of railwayunions:
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The Communist-led General Labor Confederation
has publicized a plan to obtain unity of action
agreements among all local railway unions, which,
according to a spokesman for the Socialist-oriented
Force Ouvriere, would lead to a national unification congress and a merger
of the "top levels" of the three major unions. The local agreements are
to have "annexes" providing for joint committees dominated by the General
Labor Confederation and stipulating that no strike can be terminated at
the order of a national union without the approval of a "general assembly"
of the local unions, the method by which the Communists in 1934-3 5
successfully forced national unification of railway labor under their control.
According to the US Embassy in Paris, the unity of action movement has
gained strength since the early 1951 strikes and a recent French Communist
Party central committee meeting has ordered a vigorous campaign support-
ing this trend.
Comment Local railway union elections in early
April gave the General Labor Confederation two-thirds of the plant com-
mittee representatives named; hence this report portends dangerous
Communist drive for complete control of a critical sector of the economy.
The continuing inflation can be expected to aid the Communist plan, but
no nation-wide rail strike is likely to be attempted by the General Labor
Confederation for some months, pending fruition of its elaborate plan and
the election of a new National Assembly.
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