CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1954/06/23

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03001367
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: August 20, 2019
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2019
• Publication Date: June 23, 1954

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�T-I9P SECRET
W/77.17/W41
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23 June 1954
Copy No,
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO.
NO CHANGE IN CLASS.
UI DECLASSIFIED
CLASS CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEVV DATE: e..-19 /0
AUTH: HR 70-2
DATE: ahhfi.0 REVIEWER:
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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ARCHIVAL Itt.uurt,
PLEA' Z nETtjarT TO
AGENCY ARCHIVES, BLDG.
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71#407/70K4o for TOP SECRET
Release:
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441�9
SUMMARY
GENERAL
1. Eden comments on topics for Washington talks (page 3).
2. Moscow newsman suggests USSR may ask for more international
conferences (page 3).
SOUTHEAST ASIA
3. Salan agrees on need to form Cambodian divisions (page 4).
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
4. Comment on dissolution of Jordan's Chamber of Deputies (page 5).
LATIN AMERICA
5. Comment on Guatemala% requests to UN and Inter-American Peace
Commission (page 5).
6. Departure of Guatemalan army leaves defense of capital to
Communist-led groups (page 6).
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GENERAL
1. Eden comments on topics for Washington talks:
Foreign Secretary Eden, in a half-hour
conversation with Ambassador Aldrich on
21 June on subjects likely to arise during
his visit with Prime Minister Churchill
to Washington this week end, expressed the following views:
(1) Under the Mendes-France government,
France will not ratify the EDC treaty without reservations unaccept-
able to West Germany.
(2) India and Burma have recently moved
much closer toward participation in a Southeast Asian defense arrange-
ment, but Indonesia is the most unlikely to co-operate.
(3) Chou En-lai was more impressive than
Molotov at Geneva. He was intelligent, cultured, and "apparently
desirous" of agreeing on a method to deal with the Cambodian and
Laotian problems.
(4) A new British plan for the Suez base,
calling for maintenance by British contractors and not requiring
American participation, will probably be satisfactory to Egypt In
order to avoid implications of American pressure, London may inform
Cairo before this week end of its desire to reopen negotiations.
Comment: Despite this wide number of
topics, the British Foreign office has given the impression that Britain
Is most urgently concerned with defense arrangements for Western
Europe.
2. Moscow newsman suggests USSR may ask for more international confer-
ences:
Soviet newsman Alexei
Popov said that conferences outside the United
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Nations offer the only satisfactory means of settling international
problems as long as the United States insists on keeping the Chinese
People's Republic out of the United Nations. He added that confer-
ences on European affairs "soon will be in order" in London or
Moscow.
Comment: Pravda warned on 19 June
that it will be impossible to resolve the Korean question without
the participation of the Chinese Communists and charged the West
with attempting to exclude the Chinese by transferring this question
to the United Nations.
Popov's remarks correspond to the views
of several other Soviet newsmen at Geneva who have indicated that
the Kremlin may desire another conference on European questions.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
3. Salan agrees on need to form Cambodian divisions:
In a conversation with Charg�cClintock
on an American military training program
In C:ambodia, Deputy Commander Salan
agreed with numerous arguments in favor
of forming three Cambodian divisions under such a program.
Salan also expressed agreement with
General O'Daniel's concept of forming divisional training units, which,
after training, should not be broken into smaller sized units unless
tactically necessary.
Comment: General Salan, most of whose
career has been in Indochina, is usually identified with conservative
French colonialism. If the favorable attitude credited to Salan in
this conversation represents a genuine conviction, the change from
his previous opposition to increased American participation in Indo-
chinese affairs will go far toward facilitating the progress of the
training program.
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NEAR EAST - AFRICA
4. Comment on dissolution of jordant Chamber of Deputies:
King Hussain% decree of 22 June dissolving
the Chamber of Deputies on the advice of
Prime Minister Tawfiq Abul Huda indicates
that Huda intends to return to a policy of firm personal control. Be-
cause of Huda's moderate attitude toward Israel and his record of
Communist repression, he is bitterly opposed by the radical Pales-
tinian deputies and left-wing elements in parliament. Huda can now
maintain control for four months, after which new elections are manda-
tory.
Huda is pro-British. His cabinet, formed
on 2 May, has already signed the United States economic aid agreement.
He apparently has the confidence of the king and can be expected to
maintain a moderate approach to the Palestine problem.
LATIN AMERICA
5. Comment on Guatemala's requests to UN and Inter-American Peace
Commission:
Guatemala's 21 June request to have Inter-
American Peace Commission action de-
ferred was apparently based on a belief
that Guatemala would be better served by
consideration of the case in the UN Security Council, where the Soviet
member can assist the Arbenz cause.
In making this request to the Peace Com-
mission--a semiautonomous five-member subsidiary body within the
Organization of American States�the Guatemalan government said it
desired to await the outcome of the UN's 20 June resolution calling for
a cease-fire. Meanwhile, the Guatemalan delegation at the UN has
Intimated that further Security Council action will be requested if the
fighting continues. The Guatemalan government can be expected to
make further efforts to document charges of aggression by such "evi-
dence?' as it can produce.
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Guatemala's original complaint to the
Peace Commission--filed simultaneously with its appeal to the UN
on 19 June�appeared designed to rebut possible charges that it had
Ignored its legal obligation to seek remedies within the regional
security system. Arbenz may also have hoped to block efforts to
call a full meeting of the OAS to discuss the Guatemalan threat to
hemisphere security.
6. Departure of Guatemalan army leaves defense of capital to Communist-
led groups:
Most army units have been withdrawn from
Guatemala City and Communist-led workers
there are being armed and organized into
civilian brigades.
The archbishop of Guatemala appealed to
Ambassador Peurifoy on 20 June for direct
American intervention to prevent mob vio-
lence and reprisals against anti-Communists
In the city.
The American air attach�n Guatemala
reported on 20 June that at least two key army comm'anders had been
relieved of their posts and one of them was understood to be in Jail.
The attach�dded that the army continues to support the government,
but points out that "the possibility of disaffection still exists."
Comment: In addition to the army units
usually stationed there, the Civil Guard normally maintains about 1,400
men in Guatemala City. Though it is considered capable of performing
usual police functions, it is responsive to Communist pressure and has
recently participated in repressive measures against anti-Communist
elements.
The Guatemalan army announced on 21 June
that it had that day initiated a general offensive against "enemy" forces
at Gualan and in the vicinity of Puerto Barrios and Chiquimula, all near
the Honduran bord,er (see map, p. 7).
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