CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1955/05/17

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03192938
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: September 20, 2019
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2019
• Publication Date: May 17, 1955

Approved for Release: 2019/09/17 C03192938,
�T-119-P-SECRE f
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO. -7.5-
NO CHANGE IN CLASS.
n DECLASSIFIED __-
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE: - ___217L0
AUTH: HR 70-2 -
DATE:..9a/46,0 .. REVIEWER:
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
TOP SECRET
E.3)
3.3(h)(2)
17 May 1955 3.5(c) 14
Copy No
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SUMMARY
FAR EAST
1, Japanese prime minister suggests need for Security Treaty
revision (page 3).
2. Possible railroad construction on new route toward Fukien
(page 3).
SOUTHEAST ASIA
3. France favors conference of Western big three with Diem (page 5).
SOUTH ASIA
4. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Turkey apparently favor Pakistan in its
dispute with Afghanistan (page 6).
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visor
FAR EAST
1. Japanese prime minister suggests need for Security Treaty revi-
sion:
Prime Minister Hatoyama told the Diet
on 13 May he believed revision of the
Security Treaty and Administrative Agree-
ment with the Unite States was necessary to complete Japan's in-
dependence.
Foreign Minister Shigemitsu, according
to the Japanese press, followed the prime minister with a state-
ment that immediate revision of the pacts was not feasible. He
asserted, however� that Japan's obligation to offer military bases
to the United States did not bind Tokyo to consent to their being en-
larged when requested.
Comment: The recent agreement between
Japan and the United States on Japan's defense budget for 1955-56,
which dashed Hatoyama's campaign promises of "butter instead of
guns," has resulted in renewed charges that the treaty and adminis-
trative agreement constitute "undue interference" in Japan's internal
affairs. The opposition parties are keeping the issue alive by at-
tacking the government in the Diet with the allegation that Arnerhan
bases in Japan will be used to store nuclear weapons and support
military action in the Far East.
Foreign Minister Shigemitsu told the Diet
during defense budget discussions in late April that it was "natural"
for various matters between the United States and Japan to need
adjustment.
2. Possible railroad construction on new route toward Fukien:
possible survey work and
right-of-way clearance for a railroad in
central Fukien About
30 miles of what appears to be cleared right of way have been
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identified near Shahsien. This construction follows the west bank
of the Sha Chi River, across from the main inland highway connect-
ing Amoy with the Chekiang-Kiangsi railroad.
Neither line could be finished before 1956.
Their completion will greatly ease the problem of supplying the
coastal area opposite Formosa.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
3. France favors conference of Western big three with Diem:
The French government is prepared to
accept Vietnamese premier Diem's invi-
tation to attend a conference in Saigon to
which Britain and the United States have
also been invited,according to Premier Faure's personal spokes-
man.
� France would have the three Western
powers represented by their regular emissaries in Vietnam.
Paris believes that holding a meeting at the ministerial level
would cause the regular representatives to lose importance in
Vietnamese eyes.
The premier's spokesman said he hoped
the task of such a conference would not be complicated before-
hand by some incident, such as the deposition of Bao Dai.
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Comment: The French have no desire to
become involved in renewed hostilities in Indochina and may plan
to emphasize at the proposed conference that the United States and
Britain have assumed increased responsibility in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese government recently
made public its distaste for high-level conferences on Vietnam
to which it had not been invited.
SOUTH ASIA
4. Saudi Arabia Iraq, and Turkey apparently favor Pakistan in its
dispute with Afghanistan:
there was no doubt regarding the guilty party
in connection with the Kabul riots of 30 March and that Afghanistan
should immediately make full amends. an inves-
tigation could subsequently determine who was at fault in the case
of the demonstrations before the Afghan consulate in Peshawar and
the Pakistani consulate at Jalalabad.
The Turkish government, too, has informed
Kabul that it will mediate only on the basis of the events of 30 March
and that it cannot accept as a precondition the placing of the Kabul
and Peshawar incidents in the same category.
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Comment: It appears that if both Kabul
and Karachi finally accept an investigation by one or more of these
countries, Afghan leaders will be aware of the weight of opinion
against Afghanistan and will accept the consequences of defeat.
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