CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1953/05/13

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02901109
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: July 15, 2019
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2019
• Publication Date: May 13, 1953

Approved for Release: 2019/06/26 CO2901109.
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SECUR INFORMATION
13 May 1953
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Copy No.
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO.
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Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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SUMMARY
GENERAL
1. Satellites considering centralization of Western ship chartering
(page 3).
2. Orbit attempts to establish Greece as transshipment point (page 3).
FAR EAST
3. Comment on announced 1953 industrial plan for China (page 4).
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
Mossadeq reportedly plans trip to Italy (page 4).
WESTERN EUROPE
5. French effect budget saving through piaster devaluation (page 5).
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SECU INFORMATION
GENERAL
1. Satellites considering centralization of Western ship chartering:
3.
Comment: The apparent objective of this
plan is the more efficient utilization of cargo space on chartered Western
vessels, which are used primarily to carry nonstrategic goods to China
and Chinese exports to the Satellites. This would make available more
space on Soviet bloc ships for transporting strategic commodities.
The volume of trade between the Satellites
and China has been increasing rapidly, causing serious congestion in the
Polish port of Gdynia, the major Satellite port for China trade.
2. Orbit attempts to establish Greece as transshipment point.
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Comment: The attempt to establish Greece
as a transshipment point is apparently a reaction to negotiations by
Western nations regarding transshipment controls for such major Western
European free ports as Antwerp and Rotterdam.
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FAR EAST
3. Comment on announced 1953 industrial plan for China
Figures released by Peiping on 7 May
regarding planned industrial production for 1953 are generally
lower than the preliminary figures given in a 4 February speech
by Chou En-lai,
The most important cut was in the electric
power target, now seven percent less than the figure reported in Febru-
ary. Iron and steel goals are slightly lower. Copper, lead, cotton
cloth and timber output targets were reduced as much as 10 percent.
Cement is the only important industrial commodity which is to be pro-
duced in larger quantities than originally planned.
Despite the reductions of some targets, the
final 1953 plan is still ambitious, as it calls for a 23-percent increase
in over-all industrial production over 1952.
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
4. Mossadeq reportedly plans trip to Italy
Prime Minister Mossadea
Intends
to go to Rome personally to defend Iran's
case in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's
e Italian company SUPOR, scheduled to be heard in a
Rome court on 19 May. The prime minister allegedly received a
passport on 8 May.
Comment Mossadeq may hope to use an
appearance in Rome to strengthen his political position in Iran. Previ-
ously, he gained renewed popular support by exploiting the "victories"
he had won at the UN General Assembly in November 1951 and at the
International Court of Justice in Tune 1952.
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Although it would be politically more dangerous
than ever before for Mossadeq to leave Iran at this time, he risked his two
previous trips in the face of opposition intrigues.
WESTERN EUROPE
, French effect budget saving through piaster devaluation:
The Paris devaluation of the Indochinese
piaster from 17 francs to 10 francs on 10
May will effect savings of about $170,000,000
in the French budget, according to estimates
by American and French officials in Saigon.
Comment: Such a saving would represent
about 7.5 percent of the current French budgetary deficit. This step,
whose effects will probably be only temporary, will help ease the cur-
rent financial crisis in France and may facilitate Premier IVIayer's
efforts to obtain parliamentary acquiescence to the economies and tax
increases still necessary.
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Approved for Release: 2019/06/26 CO2901109