CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1953/10/04

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02869422
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: July 15, 2019
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2019
• Publication Date: October 4, 1953

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CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO 20
NO CHANGE IN CLASS.
CI DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE: .P 062 9
AUTH. HR 7O-2
DATE 0//2/7.9 REVIEWEF
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Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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SECURITY INFORM/A.
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SUMMARY
GENERAL
I. Swiss firm making large copper delivery to China (page 3).
FAR EAST
SOUTHEAST ASIA
4. Laos outlines position for Paris negotiations (page 4).
EASTERN EUROPE
5. Increased Orbit food and clothing shipments to East Germany re-
ported (page 5).
WESTERN EUROPE
10-
. French point out advantages of five-power talks (page 6).
8. French reveal flexibility on economic aspects of Saar issue
(page 7).
9. Ex-Gaullist leaders see French approval of EDC (page 8).
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will seek greater judicial and military autonomy. The military plan
Includes setting up a Laotian general staff officered by French per-
sonnel. The American charge comments that lack of any officer
above the grade of captain "compels Laos to be reasonable." The
charge reports, however, that during Senator Mansfield's visit,
the prime minister attempted to obtain guarantees, apparently to
be used as a lever against the French, that the United States would
carry on the Laotian aid program if it were dropped by France.
Comment: The Laotian government has
been less troublesome in negotiating with the French than Vietnam
or Cambodia because of its inherent weakness and its vulnerability
to the Viet Minh. As in the other two countries, there is a desire
to minimize French control through closer relations with the United
States,
EASTERN EUROPE
5. Increased Orbit food and clothing shipments to East Germany reported:
Poland has been directed by Moscow to 5t0p3.3(h)(2)
exporting butter, eggs and poultry to Italy
and to shin these items to East Germany
Instead,
Comment: East German premier Grotewohl
has stated that Hungary, during he rest of 1953, is scheduled to
send more than the planned $2,750,000 worth of goods, mainly shoes,
textiles and foodstuffs.
The fact that the Satellites Are called on to
Increase shipments of items in unusually short domestic supply indt-
eates the urgency with which the East German situation is viewed by
Soviet leaders. Such export requirements are adding to the difficul-
ties facing these Satellites in implementing their policy of more
consumer goods for their people.
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WESTERN EUROPE
6.
7. French point out advantages of five-power talks:
The most important point in the Soviet note
of 28 September was the suggestion of five-
p ower talks to ease world tensions, in the
_ opinion of French vice premier Paul Reynaud,
who told Ambassador Dillon that the cabinet had shown general
sympathy for his views. Reynaud has little hope that such negotia-
tions would be successful but thinks they would "unmask the real
intentions of Communist China in the same manner that the Russians'
intentions regarding Germany had now been unmasked."
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No attempt should be made to drop the
subject of a four-power conference, he said, but he believes that
"no one in France" any longer sees any chance for success in such
talks.
Comment: While the French government
no longer needs to press for talks on Germany as a precondition for
further progress on its European policies, it evidently believes
that every effort should be made to determine Chinese Communist
intentions as a means of strengthening popular support of its re-
vised Indochina policy.
8. French reveal flexibility on economic aspects of Saar issue:.
A French Foreign Ministry official
informed the American embassy that
Paris may wish to revert, in the economic
discussions of the Saar problem, to the
report of Van Der Goes, Dutch delegate to the Council of Europe
Assembly. While this dles not mean that the French would agree
to transform their economic union with the Saar into a simple
trade treaty, the officer believes they might "accept a treaty
of economic cooperation, limited in time."
Comment: The Van Der Goes report,
which was the basis of a general:esolution adopted by the Council
of Europe Assembly on 25 September over strong German protests,
called for conversion of the French-Saar economic union into a
50-year treaty of economic cooperation. In the debate on that
resolution, the French emphasized that the union with the Saar
must be maintained until succeeded by a broad European customs
and currency union.
There have been inconclusive indications
that the Germans would come forward with specific proposals
for safeguarding France's special interests in the Saar by means
other than the present economic union.
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9. Ex-Gaullist leaders see French approval of EDC:
Ex-Gaullist leaders, including two cabinet
ministers, told American embassy officials
in Paris that while they continue to oppose
the EDC treaty, they now expect it to pass
Dy a narrow margin. Ambassador Dillon believes their major efforts
are now aimed at watering down the European Political Community and
delaying full implementation of EDC through some compromise for-
mula.
They further stated that since Adenaueris
victory many French deputies feel that a merely negative position
on EDC is no longer possible and are in favor of some positive
policy.
Comment: There have been strong indi-
cations that Paris has approached The Hague and Bonn with a pro-
posal to prolong full implementation of the EDC treaty over several
years. The ex-Gaullists are pressing hard for a full-scale National
Assembly debate on European integration prior to the 20 October
foreign mintsters meeting on the political community in The Hague.
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