CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1952/03/22

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02692610
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: May 24, 2019
• Document Release Date: May 30, 2019
• Publication Date: March 22, 1952

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SE�RTY INFORMATION
22 March 1952
Copy No. 4 j.
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO.
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AUTH: HR 72t9
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Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
TOPS
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SECU NFORMATION
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SUMMARY
FAR EAST
1. Communist prisoners report no plague or cholera in their unit
(page 3).
2. Peiping rebuffs Indian offer to investigate biological warfare
charges (page 3).
3. Pakistanis reported "not too happy" over their relations with
Peiping (page 4).
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
4. Turkish fears of Kurdish uprisings discounted by US Army Attache
(page 4).
5, Egyptian Prime Minister considering new elections (page 5).
EASTERN EUROPE
6. Polish and Czechoslovak shortages delayed 1952 trade agreement
(page 6).
WESTERN EUROPE
7. Belgium threatens to curtail military commitment to NATO (page 7).
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FAR EAST
1. Communist prisoners report no plague or cholera in their unit:
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Far East Command interrogation of 80 prisoners
and civilian refugees, some of whom were in
Communist North Korea as recently as 10 March,
revealed that they knew of no plague or cholera
in North Korea. Captured Communist soldiers reported that unit political
and non-commissioned medical officers were the source of claims that the
United Nations were using biological warfare.
The incidence of typhus, typhoid and smallpoz.,
however, equals last year's epidemic conditions, the Far East Command
believes.
Comment: The outbreak of disease in epidemic
proportions among Communist troops and civilians in North Korea is a
constant possibility. There is no convincing evidence from any source,
however, of the recurrence of epidemics similar to those experienced by
the enemy last year.
2. Peiping rebuffs Indian offer to investigate biological warfare charges:
Indian Ambassador Panikkar reports that he
was unable to see Premier Chou En-lai for the
purpose of expressing alarm over Peiping's
charges of biological warfare and to offer
India's services in an investigation of those charges. Panikkar was
Interviewed by a Chinese Communist Foreign Ministry official who
thanked him for the Indian offer but stated that Peiping was conducting
its own investigation with the help of "friendly" nations.
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Panikkar stated that the Peiping government is
taking the matter very seriously and, although the accusations seem
incredible, the Chinese people are satisfied that the charges are true.
Comment: Several international committees
of Communists and fellow travellers are preparing "evidence" to support
Communist charges of biological warfare,. Refusal to permit an investi-
gation by any non-Communist group has reduced the effectiveness of their
propaganda even in India.
3. Pakistanis reported "not too happy" over their relations with Peiping:
Analysis of bi -weekly secret reports submitted
by the Pakistani Embassy in Peiping during
1951 has convinced American Embassy officials
in Karachi that the Pakistanis are "not too
happy" over their relations with the Chinese Communists.
Pakistani representatives in Peiping reported
that the Chinese Communist leadership is "arrogant and fanatic" and that
the Chinese people are "living under fear." Anti-foreign feeling on the
part of the Chinese Communists was said to be "incredible," and the
Pakistani Charge concluded that "we will have to write off the Chinese
as far as friendship is concerned."
Comment: These reports confirm earlier
indications that Pakistani officials do not share Indian Ambassador
Panikkar's view that the Chinese Communists are primarily nationalists
who may be influenced by a conciliatory policy.
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
4, Turkish fears of Kurdish uprisings discounted by US Army Attache:
General Nuri Yamut, Chief of the Turkish
General Staff, recently told General Arnold,
Chief of the American military mission in
Turkey, that he expects trouble in the Kurdish
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1'Y RET
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areas of Turkey, Iran and Iraq. He reportedly
gave Arnold a map showing the areas of potential
disturbance,
affairs subsequently
of imminent Kurdish trouble.
\that there is no indication
was referring to border disturbances which might arise if Iran were
Soviet-dominated or if Soviet troops moved into the Near East.
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The Kurds number approximately three million
people; half live in Turkey, the remainder in Iran, Iraq, Syria and the
USSR. During the past several years, the Soviet Union has beamed a
steady barrage of radio propaganda at this Near East minority.
5. Egyptian Prime Minister considering new elections:
In the absence of progress in solving the Suez
and Sudan issues, Egyptian Prime Minister
Hilali reportedly is considering the dissolution
of Parliament and the holding of new elections,
which would probably return the Wald to power. The Premier is reported
to be disgusted with the British and with their "seeming belief that they
can stall along without making any constructive gesture."
Comment: The immediate obstacle to progress
on the treaty dispute is lack of agreement on a proposed statement of
principles on which to base negotiations.
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Egypt, which only recently asked for a
unilateral British declaration, now appears willing to reconsider a
joint statement. The Egyptian Foreign Minister has asked a British
Embassy official what Brita:in has to offer as a bilateral declaration.
Both the American and British Ambassadors
in Cairo believe, however, that the proposed British statement will be
unacceptable to the Egyptians.
EASTERN EUROPE
6. Polish and Czechoslovak shortages delayed 1952 trade agreement:
Significant shortages of industrial goods and
raw materials impeded negotiations between
Poland and Czechoslovakia for the 1952 trade
agreement which was finally signed on 29 Febru-
ary.
The Czechs stated that they were having
considerable difficulty persuading the Poles to deliver non-ferrous metals
to be processed by Czechoslovak industry for Poland. Although Czecho-
slovakia had the plant capacity, it did not have the raw materials to satisfy
Polish requirements.
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Comment: the problem
the Satellites face in their efforts to increase industrial productive capacity
and meet the USSR's economic demands in the face of Western export
controls and the world shortage of critical materials.
have foreshadowed a 1952 Polish-Czech trade level
roughly seven and one half percent below that of last year.
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WESTERN EUROPE
7. Belgium threatens to curtail military commitment to NATO:
The Belgian delegate to the European Defense 3.3(h)(2)
Community states that, should the other members
reject his country's proposal that all adopt a two-
year period for compulsory military service,
Belgium will se orce o "re-examine its NATO obligations." Belgium
considers its present two-year conscription period essential for the ful-
fillment of its military commitments.
The French delegate comments that this new
proposal has serious political implications.
Comment: Belgium is the only Western
European country whose conscripts are called to serve two years, and
the government is under strong domestic pressure to reduce this period.
Such a step is opposed by the Belgian Defense Minister on the ground
that the country's present military program could not then be carried out.
Critical financial and economic problems facing
France make it impossible for its government to lengthen the eighteen-
month conscription period.
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