CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1956/01/14

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03020482
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: October 25, 2019
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2019
• Publication Date: January 14, 1956

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r.#7
r CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
TOP SECRET
14 January 1956
Copy No. 03
DOCUMENT NO te/
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DATE: EVIEWER
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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CONTENTS
1. JORDAN MAY BE FORCED TO ACCEPT ARAB AID
OFFER page 3).
2. SOURCES OF POUJADE'S BACKING
(page 4).
3. POPULAR REPUBLICANS OPPOSE CONCEPT OF
MINORITY FRENCH GOVERNMENT
(page 5).
4. COMMUNIST-SUPPORTED POPULAR FRONT MAY BE
FORMED FOR GREEK ELECTIONS (page 6).
14 Jan 56
THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
(page 7)
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1. JORDAN MAY BE FORCED TO ACCEPT ARAB AID
OFFER
The American embassy in Amman be-
lieves that the situation in Jordan has
deteriorated to such an extent that an
offer even of substantial aid from the
West probably would not enable King
Hussain to reject a subsidy in the
amount reported to have been offered
by Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
The British Foreign Office, however,
appears confident that the king will decline the offer, al-
though it believes another outbreak of rioting would follow
an announcement of such a decision. I
The Foreign Office told the American
embassy in London that Iraqi prime minister Nun i is un-
decided on his reply to Hussain's request that Iraqi troops
stand by to help restore order in Jordan. The British
Foreign Office implied that British troops from Cyprus
rather than Iraqi forces would be used in an emergency.
Jordanian Arab Legion leader Glubb, according to the For-
eign Office, has reported that 3,000 Saudi troops, mostly
irregulars, are grouped at Kay, near the Jordanian border,
presumably ready to enter Jordan if the situation deterio-
rates further.
Comment The three Arab states reportedly pro-
posed on 11 January to give Jordan the
equivalent of $280,000,000 over a ten-year period--a sum
about $70,000,000 less than Jordan would receive from
Britain over the same period--if present arrangements
with Britain continued. It would seem unlikely that Hussain
can afford to reject the Arab offer outright. His decision
will probably depend primarily on his government's ability
to maintain order in the next few days.
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2. SOURCES OF POUJADE'S BACKING
The Poujade antitax movement,
which gained 52 seats in the French
assembly in the election on 2 Janu-
ary, is directed and supported by
rightist military and ex-Vichy elements in France and
French settlers in North Africa.
Poujade
has financial support from a known World War II col-
laborator with the Nazis.
Poujade has also received financial aid from the French
settlers in North Africa.
The settlers' link to Poujade will
greatly increase the new government's difficulty in find-
ing a solution to the Algerian problem and might result
in violence in both Metropolitan France and North Africa.
Comment
Some of the movement's leaders have
made strong anti-American statements
because of France's loss of influence and control in North
Africa. French settlers are bitterly opposed to Mendes-
France. The press reported violent Poujadist action
against a Radical Socialist Congress in Algeria on 11 Jan-
uary. A newly elected Mendes- France supporter from
Paris had to seek police protection.
Semi-fascists, ultranationalists, and
colonial extremists were held in check in the Gaullist
Rally, but their influence may have freer rein in the Pou-
jadist movement.
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3. POPULAR REPUBLICANS OPPOSE CONCEPT OF
MINORITY FRENCH GOVERNMENT
The Popular Republican Party (MRP)
announced on 12 January that it will
oppose the formation of a minority
government by the Republican Front.
ea er old an American official in Paris on 10
January that his party attributes most of the pressure for
a minority government to propaganda by Mendes- France
supporters aimed at securing more influence in a wider
coalition. The source intimated that negotiations are tak-
ing place between Mollet's Socialists and MRP leaders,
who apparently anticipate a shift in the next week or so
toward a government with a broader base.
The MRP tentatively plans to support
a Socialist-led government, but its leaders object that one
headed by Mendes-France would be short-lived and a prel-
ude to "great chaos."
Comment The Socialists and the MRP are the
parties most likely to be able to form
a bridge between the hostile center blocs. Despite Mollet's
strong public insistence on a minority Republican Front
government, both Socialist and MRP leaders have shown
an inclination since the 2 January elections to seek a
rapprochement.
The MRP's public statement will oblige
Monet and Mendes-France to clarify their position. Paris
observers had previously assumed that the MRP would
acquiesce in a narrowly based coalition led by a Socialist
or a Mendes-France Radical and supported by the Commu-
nists on some domestic issues.
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4. COMMUNIST-SUPPORTED POPULAR FRONT MAY
BE FORMED FOR GREEK ELECTIONS
The drift of Greek center parties
toward co-operation with the Com-
munist-front EDA in the national
elections scheduled for 19 February
appears to e accelerating. If this culminates in a for-
mal EDA-supported Popular Front to oppose Prime Min-
ister Karamanlis' right-of-center National Radical Union,
the forces in the election may be nearly equal.
George Papandreou, anti-Communist
chief of the Liberal Party, had "virtually decided" by 12
January to co-operate with EDA as the only alternative to
political extinction,
The Liberal leader reportedly believes center parties no
longer have vote-getting appeal and that no one of them
will be able to poll the 15 percent of the total vote required
to win a parliamentary seat. The leaders of the other es-
tablished center parties this source reported, share
Papandreou's views.
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�SEreRET--
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THE ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION
(Information as of 1700, 13 January)
Israel has charged that Egyptians fired on
an Israeli patrol along the Gaza strip and that antiaircraft fire
was opened on an Israeli plane near the El Auja zone, but no
casualties were reported. (Press)
The commander in chief of the Egyptian
navy has told the American naval attach�n Cairo that he does
not believe Israel will attempt to force the blockade of the Gulf
of Aqaba, but that if Israel does so it will mean war.
Egypt intends to establish a torpedo boat force at
Sharm el Sheikh, the Egyptian headquarters at the mouth of the
gulf. The new force apparently will arrive under escort of a
frigate detailed to relieve the patrol craft now on guard duty
there
n 11 January the American army attach�
in Cairo identified five Soviet T-34 medium tanks proceeding
cross-country to a firing range in the Suez Canal Zone. The
attach�eports that, a sizable
but unknown number of Soviet medium tanks are at Shallufa, a
station on the railway which parallels the canal. This is the
first sighting of Soviet ground equipment in use by the Egyptians.
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The Soviet merchant vessel Krasnodar,
which had given a false destination as it passed Istanbul, ar-
rived at Alexandria on 11 January with a deck cargo of large
wooden crates. This makes five Soviet freighters which have
delivered arms from Soviet Black Sea ports to Egypt since the
beginning of the year and a total of 12 arms cargoes which have
been carried to Egypt by Soviet freighters since deliveries be-
gan on 22 October. Cargo unloaded by the five ships arriving
since 1 January has reportedly included fighter and bomber
aircraft with spare parts, heavy and light tanks, heavy and
light guns, rifles and bayonets, clothing, and other supplies.
One of the vessels, the General Chernakovsky, also reportedly
discharged six LCM-type landing craft, each 50 to 60 feet long,
which had been carried as deck cargo.
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