CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1957/07/25

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Keywords: 2018 Sanitization
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03169395
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2019
• Publication Date: July 25, 1957

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OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This document contains classified information affecting
the national security of the United States within the
meaning of the espionage laws, US Code Title 18, Sections
793, 794, and 798. The law prohibits its transmission
or the revelation of its contents in any manner to an un-
authorized person, as well as its use in any manner
prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States
or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detri-
ment of the United States.
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CONTENTS
/4_10 SELWYN LLOYD OUT TISH POLICY TOWARD
MUSCAT REBELLION (page 3).
42. HIGH IRAQI OFFICERS REPORTED READY TO ORGANIZE
PRO-EGYPTIAN CONSPIRACY page 4)0
SHAH APPARENTLY OBLIVIOUS TO THREATS TO IRA-
MAN STABILITY (page 5).
A. ISRAEL-JORDAN BORDER CLASH FEARED
(nage 6)
REPORTED SOVIET INTEREST IN ZHUKUV VISIT TO
UNITED STATES (page 7).
46. PERVUKHIN NAMED CHAIRMAN OF SOVIET STAmp rartir_
MITTEE ON FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS
(page 8).
,w 7. SOUTH CHINA CROP FAILURE CAUSING REFUGEE PRES-
SURE ON HONG KONG (page 9).
BULGANIN LETTER TO MACMILLAN
25 July 57
(page 10).
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1. SELWYN LLOYD OUTLINES BRITISH POLICY TOWARD
MUSCAT REBELLION
Reference:
British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd
minimized the scale of Britain's military
action in Oman to Ambassador Whitney on
23 July and indicated his government still
hopes to arrange talks between Saudi-Arabia
and Muscat on border problems. Lloyd sug-
gested that King Saud be informed that Lon-
don does not plan to magnify this affair, what-
ever the provocation, but concluded, "If we
don't beat this down, we will have trouble with other areas around
the coast of Arabia."
Lloyd said it might be necessary "to do a
bit of bombing, perhaps a fort or two," but that because of the
heat, no British troops are being moved into Muscat at this time.
A War Office source said on 22 July, however, that a rifle com-
pany and a support company armed with mortars and heavy ma-
chine guns are being airlifted to neighboring Sharja. Although
the rifle company will probably be moved to Buraimi, the War
Office plans no further troop movements now. Lloyd stated that
the local Trucial Oman Scouts, numbering about 800 plus 21 Brit-
ish officers will receive additional arms and may be used to seal
off the rebels.
Although most concern has centered on pos-
sible repercussions in the oil states of the Persian Gulf, the
British also consider that unrest may spread to the frontier be-
tween the Eastern Aden Protectorate and Muscat.
25 July 57
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vaai
2. HIGH IRAQI OFFICERS REPORTED READY TO
ORGANIZE PRO-EGYPTIAN CONSPIRACY
Comment
General Rubai is in the United States with
an Iraqi military mission and is to remain
here through mid-August. His strong following in one of the
principal tribes in the Middle Tigris area gives him political
influence. His command is based at Baquba, within ready
striking distance of Baghdad. Rubai, a graduate of Sandhurst
and the Staff College at Quetta, India, is believed to be strongly
anti-British. He has been described as intelligent and one of
the best officers in the Iraqi army.
25 July 57
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3. SHAH APPARENTLY OBLIVIOUS TO THREATS TO
IRANIAN STABILITY
The Shah seems completely unaware
of growing popular dissatisfaction and
frustration which might threaten the
stability of his regime and indicates
every intention of maintaining personal control of the gov-
ernment, according to Ambassador Chapin, who had an
audience with the Shah on 23 July. According to one Ira-
nian official, the Shah returned from Europe "confident to
the point of cockiness" and has made it clear to the cabinet
and other officials that he intends to rule Iran.
Comment The attitude of the Shah since his return
from Europe will only aggravate the grow-
ing feeling among middle-class Iranians that Iran would be
better off under a different form of government. If he persists,
resentment of his personal rule could culminate in an ultima-
tum from political and military leaders demanding that he with-
draw from government affairs or relinquish the throne.
25 July 57
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4. ISRAEL-JORDAN BORDER CLASH FEARED
Reference:
Foreign Minister Rifai of Jordan and
United Nations observers fear a border
incident may result from tree-planting
activity by Israel in the neutral zone of
Jerusalem. Ftifai,in an interview with
the American ambassador in Amman,
charged the Israelis are trying to estab-
lish a de facto demarcation line and as-
serted that the Israeli labor force is sup-
ported by three companies of troops.
Israel claims that a de facto partition line
has existed for years and that Jordan has
made no complaints over previous non-
military activity.
An Israeli broadcast from Jerusalem that
Jordanian "infiltrators" fired on a group of Israeli farmers
and kidnaped one of them on 23 July adds to the tension along
the Israeli-Jordanian border, which had been relatively quiet
in recent months.
25 July 57 Current Intelligence Bulletin
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1.1-r
5, REPORTED SOVIET INTEREST IN ZHUKOV VISIT
TO UNITED STATES
The Moscow correspondent of the
Italian Communist paper L' Unita
reported on 23 July that "circles
worthy of trust close to the Soviet
government" considered President
Eisenhower's remarks on 17 July about a visit by Marshal
Zhukov to the United States a "logical and sensible idea
and hence worthy of being received and examined with max-
imum attention." He claimed that "other groups" in Wash-
ington acted to block the proposal and as a result "the Amer-
ican government backed out," although the original idea was
a good one.
Comment L'Unita's correspondent, who recently
gave a plausible "inside" report on the
presidium shake-up, probably is speaking authoritatively
about Soviet views. A Soviet journalist, talking with an Am-
erican colleague last month, suggested a resumption of pri-
vate correspondence between Zhukov and President Eisen-
hower. The Soviet press and radio have reported but not
commented on the President's press conference remarks.
25 July 57
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6. PERVUKHIN NAMED CHAIRMAN OF SOVIET STATE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS
I F
Foreign Economic Relations, according to a TASS announce-
ment. His successor as minister of medium machine build-
ing is Yefim P. Slaysky, former chief of the atomic energy
hoard under the USSR Council of Ministers.
Mikhail G. Pervukhin has been relieved
as head of the Ministry of Medium Machine
Building, the chief nuclear energy organi-
zation in the USSR, and appointed head of
the newly organized State Committee for
Comment Pervukhin was relieved as head of the State
Committee for Current Planning and ap-
pointed minister of medium machine building on 30 April 1957;
he was demoted from full to candidate member of the party pre-
sidium in the June purge.
The Chief Directorate for Economic Rela-
tions (GUES), according to a report of 12 July,was to be raised
to the status of a state committee under the Council of Ministers.
The functions of GUES, especially with respect to directing the
Soviet program of economic aid to underdeveloped areas, have
been steadily expanding since it was formed in mid-1955. Since
the new committee will presumably supervise economic rela-
tions with all foreign countries, Pervukhin's new appointment
puts him in a position to exert considerable influence on a broad
area of Soviet foreign affairs.
Slaysky, who has been associated with the
Soviet atomic energy program for the past ten years, was ap-
pointed head of the Chief Directorate for Utilization of Atomic
Energy when that body was formed in April 1956 and is a logical
candidate to head the Medium Machine Building Ministry.
25 July 57
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a-J LLL� d
7. SOUTH CHINA CROP FAILURE CAUSING REFUGEE
PRESSURE ON HONG KONG
A rice crop failure in South China has
greatly increased the flow of refugees
into Hong Kong I
Pressure on the colony's borders is said to
be greater than at any time since the bombing of Canton in
1938.
Comment
Floods in late May and a severe typhoon
in mid-July caused extensive damage in
Kwangtung Province adjoining Hong Kong.
Widespread discontent in Kwangtung is re-
flected in official admissions that since last winter more than
100,000 peasant households have withdrawn from cooperatives.
Unemployment, labor strikes, and food shortages in Kwang-
tung have also been officially acknowledged this year.
25 July 57
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8. BULGANIN LETTER TO MACMILLAN
Comment on:
Soviet Premier Bulganin's letter of
20 July in answer to British Prime
Minister Macmillan's letter of 16 June
reveals no softening of Soviet policy on
the outstanding East-West issues and in-
dicates that the recent shake-up in the Soviet leaderstiip has
resulted in no change in Moscow's position on disarmament.
The 24 July Moscow broadcast summary
of the letter focuses primarily on the disarmament negotia-
tions, with special emphasis on the absolute necessity of an
agreement to suspend nuclear weapons tests without linking
this to other disarmament measures. The letter suggests,
like Zorin's 8 July statement to the disarmament subcommit-
tee, that Moscow is unsympathetic to any Western proposals
which involve more or less than the Soviet test suspension
proposal of 14 June. The letter makes no new disarmament
proposals and does not suggest a recess in the talks. It
sharply questions Western, particularly British, sincerity
in the negotiations.
In addition to repeating past Soviet pro-
posals for European security, Bulganin suggests a pledge by
the United States and the European countries not to give any
economic or military aid to an aggressor in Europe, regard-
less of treaty obligations. He warns again of the dangers of
introducing atomic weapons into Europe and proposes again a
British-Soviet-American agreement to keep them out of Germany.
He repeats the standard formula that German unification is "the
concern of the two existing German states and it is they who
should negotiate between themselves about it."
Bulganin offers no detailed proposals for the
Middle East, but simply urges a great-power pledge not to use
force to settle disputes in the area. In the field of Anglo-Soviet
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relations, he calls for an end to restrictions on trade and
for talks on cultural exchanges, adding that the question of
BBC broadcasts to the USSR could be discussed if their pur-
pose is to improve understanding between the two countries,
The Soviet Union has been trying in bilateral
approaches at the London disarmament talks to cause Western
disunity. This letter may well be followed by separate ones to
France and the United States, Although urging "personal con-
tacts between the statesmen of our two countries," Bulganin
gives no evidence that the USSR is offering to settle significant
issues in bilateral or multilateral talks,
25 July 57
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