CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1952/02/26

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02698157
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: May 24, 2019
• Document Release Date: May 30, 2019
• Publication Date: February 26, 1952

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SEC INFORMATION
26 February 1952
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Copy No. 40
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO
NO GLAS,
, 10: 'lb
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Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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SEC INFORMATION
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SUMMARY
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
I. British Cabinet refuses immediate recognition of Farouk's title
to Sudan (page 3).
2. Tunisian nationalists recruit German demolition experts (page 3).
EASTERN EUROPE
Tito may propose Italo-Yugoslav condominium for Trieste (page 4).
WESTERN EUROPE
4. Bonn attaches conditions to NATO contributions (page 4).
5. Italian Communists seek to regain strike initiative (page 5).
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NEAR EAST AFRICA
1. British Cabinet refuses immediate recognition of Farouk's title to Sudan:
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The British Cabinet has decided that Britain 3.3(h)(2)
will not recognize Farouk as King of the Sudan
prior to consultation with a Sudanese Parlia-
ment which will be elected this summer.
Britain hopes that Eg9pt will instruct its sympathizers to participate
In the election campaign in order to obtain maximum representation in
the Parliament.
Britain would have no objections to Egyptian-
Sudanese discussions prior to the elections, but hopes that topics other
than Farouk's title can be included.
Comment: The British Government has been
- reluctant to work out even this limited proposal on the Sudan. Because
of the Egyptian insistence that the recognition of King Farouk's newly
assumed title is essential to the success of any Anglo-Egyptian dis-
cussion, it appears that such discussions are likely to become deadlocked.
2. Tunisian nationalists recruit German demolition experts:
asked the
Consul in Benghazi to secure British police
assistance in preventing five Germans, re-
cruited in Cairo by the Tunisian nationalists,
from reaching Tunisia via Libya. The Germans
are demolition specialists who purportedly served with the German
Army in Tunisia during World War II and speak Arabic. They have
most recently been employed by the Engineer Corps of the Egyptian
Army.
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EASTERN EUROPE
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3. Tito may propose Italo-Yugoslav condominium for Trieste:
Marshal Tito
recently informed
that about
1 March he will announce that Yugoslavia is
prepared to open negotiations with Italy over Trieste on the basis of
the Italian Peace Treaty. At that time Tito will propose the creation
of a permanent free territory, including Yugoslav Zone B, under an
Italo-Yugoslav condominium. The proposal will specify that the
condominium be administered by a governor appointed not by the
United Nations but alternately by Yugoslavia and Italy for a three-
or four-year term.
According to Tito the objective of this tactic
will be to convince the West of Yugoslavia's good faith and to "force 3.3(h)(2)
Italy's hand."
Comment:
Yugoslavia plans to propose an Italo-Yugoslav condo-
minium over Trieste in an effort to weaken Italian claims to the area.
A move to invoke the Italian Peace Treaty, which called for the creation
of a Free Territory of Trieste governed by a UN Security Council
appointee, would be a logical sequel to the failure of preliminary talks
between the two governments to produce a formula for a territorial
settlement.
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WESTERN EUROPE
4. Bonn attaches conditions to NATO contributions:
The German Federal Republic has submitted a
memorandum to the NATO Council stating
the conditions governing its payment of a
2.67�billion-dollar contribution to Western
defense, beginning 1 Tilly or later. Should the Federal Republic prove
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Incapable of supporting the envisagedfigrure, it will ask for foreign aid
pending a reduction of its defense burden. Furthermore, the Federal
Republic and NATO will later review what other budgetary expenses
are deductible from defense costs, with particular attention being given
to federal aid to Berlin.
Comment: Germany's acceptance of its share
of Western defense costs may be more apparent than real. There is a
considerable difference between Allied and West German forecasts of
gross national production. If the Allied forcast is not realized by
fiscal year 1953, the Federal Republic will ask for a reduction of its
defense costs.
In the November NATO meeting in Rome, the
Allied High Commissioners were charged with negotiating an over-all
defense figure for the West German fiscal year beginning 1 April.
Hence West Germany will be granted a three- to four-month grace
period before assuming the full costs of rearmament, which would cut
some 330 million dollars from the original Allied figure for fiscal
year 1952-53.
5. Italian Communists seek to regain strike initiative:
The Communist Party is promoting local
strikes throughout Italy. Many of these have
been supported by the rank and file of the
anti-Communist unions despite the announced
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opposition of their leaders.
� A month-old strike over working conditions in
the Sicilian sulphur mines, called by the Communist-dominated General
Labor Confederation, has reached serious proportions. It now involves
10,000 workers, has interrupted MSA- sponsored modernization projects,
and is paralyzing the sulphur industry.
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The American Embassy in Rome comments
that the Communists are trying to retrieve the initiative in the labor
field and their ability to use strikes as a subversive weapon in an
emergency.
Comment This is the first indication of a
country-wide strike campaign. Brief strikes were reportedly called
by the General Labor Confederation among the metallurgical workers'
In four north Italian provinces within the last two weeks.
Such a strike offensive, apparently directed
at Italian defense industries, would violate last December's pledge by
the leader of the General Labor Confederation that its members would
work regularly on defense orders and offer only passive opposition.
This attitude has apparently not met with approval in high Communist
quarters.
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