CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1956/11/21

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03189008
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: October 25, 2019
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2019
• Publication Date: November 21, 1956

CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
Approved
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21 November 1956
Copy No. d.,
/./
//.
3.3(h)(2)
3.5(c)
DOCUMENT No.
NO CHANGE IN CLASS.
CI DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S
NEXT REVIEW DATE:
MTH: HR 70-
REVIEWER:
DATE.
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.
SECRET
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CONTENTS
/BRITAIN FACES CRITICAL FINANCIAL SITUATION
(page 3).
/SYRIAN REQUEST FOR ARMS AND PERSONNEL FROM
USSR INDICATED ( (page 4).
/ISRAEL'S POSITION ON NEGOTIATING WITHDRAWAL
OF TROOPS (page 6).
4. JORDAN PARLIAMENT CALLS_FOILARrglaitTION OF
ANGLO-JORDANIAN TREATY ( ) (page 7).
5. YUGOSLAV ARREST OF DJILAS
(page 8).
6. SOVIET LONG-RANGE AIRCRAFT ACTIVE IN WESTERN
ARCTIC (page 9).
7. PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER REPORTS ON CHINA TRIP
(page 11).
8. EARLY INTEGRATION OF PATHETS INTO LAOTIAN
GOVERNMENT SEEN LIKELY (Page 12).
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1. BRITAIN FACES CRITICAL FINANCIAL SITUATION
hancellor of the Exchequer Macmillan
aid privately on 19 November that the
ritish balance-of-payments figures for
his month would be "very bad" and that
e was facing a most difficult choice. Macmillan said that
n announcing the figures on 3 December he could either let
vents take their course, in which case sterling would depre-
ciate substantially and Britain would no longer be a major
power, or he could take the stronger line that Britain had
reserves which it would use to support the rate. In this con-
nection, he mentioned the International Monetary Fund and
borrowing against government-held United States securities.
He indicated that he favored the latter course.
Macmillan said he realized that he could
not possibly make the necessary arrangements to use these
reserves within 10 days and that he could not secure the neces-
sary United States agreement until British troops were out of
Egypt.
Comment For the last several months Britain's
sterling reserves have shown a steady de-
cline with the exception of September. On 1 November, fol-
lowing a fall of $84,000,000 in the October figures, the reserves
were only $244,000,000 above what British Treasury officials
have long considered the minimum safety level.
In answering Labor's 12 November parlia-
mentary attack on the government for disregarding the eco-
nomic consequences of its intervention in Egypt, Macmillan
acknowledged that there would be a "serious temporary effect
upon our economy and our reserves." He insisted that the
sterling reserves were sufficient to take care of such a set-
back, commenting, "that is what reserves are for,"
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2. SYRIAN REQUEST FOR ARMS AND PERSONNEL FROM
USSR INDICATED
Kabbani had asked the USSR to supply
wo squadrons of MIG-17 jet fighters--about 30 aircraft--
with necessary personnel." Other equipment requested, to
e accompanied by personnel, included four mobile radar
tations, one regiment each of 122-mm. field guns (24 guns),
5-mm, antiaircraft guns (8 guns), coastal artillery (8-12
uns), and 12 motor torpedo boats. In addition, personnel
o service two regiments each of 85-mm. antiaircraft guns
nd 37-mm. antiaircraft guns were requested.
The Soviet resnonse to the Syrian request
is not yet known. Damascus instructed
its army purchasing mission in Moscow to "work to procure
immediately" 25,000 rifles, 15,000 submachine guns,, 650
mortars, together with ammunition, and to hasten deliveries
under contracts concluded earlier with Czechoslovakia and
Poland. The USSR is not known, however, to have delivered
any of this equipment.
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The "reservoirs" are probably for petroleum stor-
age. One of the major factors limiting Syria's present
capability to support a high level of jet aircraft activity is
a shortage of fuel storage facilities. The quantity of steel
plate sought is sufficient to provide storage for as much as
75,000 tons of aviation fuel in tanks which could be con-
structed within a period of two or three months.
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3. ISRAEL'S POSITION ON NEGOTIATING WITHDRAWAL
OF TROOPS
Israel planned to start negotiations on
20 November with the UN secretary
general on the withdrawal of troops
from Egypt, according to Israeli am-
bassador Eban. Eban said Israel in-
tends to ask that UN forces take over
key points in Sinai as Israeli troops
move out and that Sinai be demilitar-
dice to Egyptian sovereignty!' Israel
proposes that it be assured of freedom of the Straits of
� Tiran by one of three alternatives: (1) leaving Israeli
forces there, (2) leaving the islands in the straits empty,
or (3) having a UN force occupy the islands. The Israeli
position on the ultimate disposition of the Gaza strip is not
yet firm, but Tel Aviv will insist that the Egyptians do not
return there.
According to the American embassy in
Tel Aviv, the Israeli defense force, the press, the general
public and all but the extreme political parties have reluc-
tantly accepted Ben-Gurion's agreement in principle to
evacuate Sinai. The embassy believes that the Israelis,
however, will insist on border security and freedom of
transit in the Suez. The embassy believes that if these
objectives are not attained, not even Ben-Gurion could per-
suade the Israeli public to accept Egyptian control of the
Gaza strip, or the re-establishment of Egyptian military
control in Sinai and the Straits of Tiran, unless the big
powers give Israel iron-clad security guarantees.
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4. JORDAN PARLIAMENT CALLS FOR ABROGATION OF
ANGLO-JORDANIAN TREATY
The Jordanian parliament's unanimous
approval of a committee recommendation
that Jordan abrogate the Anglo-Jordanian
treaty and establish diplomatic relations
with the Soviet Union and Communist China will almost cer-
tainly be followed by action in this sense by the Jordan gov-
ernment, although King Hussain may attempt to delay final
action on the treaty until a substitute has been found for the
$33,000,000 annual British subsidy.
King Hussain told Ambassador Mallory
on 16 November that he doubted the other Arab states would
provide aid on a long-term basis, and that he did not want to
align Jordan against the West despite assurances of aid he had
received from "other sources!' Ambassador Bohlen believes
the USSR would respond favorably to a Jordanian request for
aid,
byria .nas aireaay
ordered arms for Jordan's account from the Soviet bloc.
The approval of diplomatic relations with
Communist China is a gesture of defiance against the West.
Peiping has shown great interest in the Arab states during the
past year.
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5, YUGOSLAV ARREST OF DJILAS
The arrest in Belgrade on 19 November
of former Yugoslav vice president Djilas
may be designed to counter any. Soviet
criticism during the current Belgrade-
Moscow controversy that Yugoslavia is
no longer a true supporter of world Communism. Belgrade
presumably foresees an increasingly difficult period in its
relations with Moscow following Tito's critical speech of
11 November and Pravda's rejoinder on 19 November.
Djilas' detention arose from the publi-
catipn in the American press of his article which described
the Hungarian revolt as the "beginning of the end of Commu-
nism generally!' There have been no signs of serious unrest
in Yugoslavia in the wake of Hungarian events, but Djilas is
presumably viewed by the regime as a natural rallying point
for those forces opposing the Belgrade Communist govern-
ment. Tito stated in his 11 November speech that Yugoslavia
is "united and strong," but "we must not allow various char-
acters and elements to speak all sorts of nonsense!'
Djilas was purged in 1954 for advocating
greater freedom in Yugoslavia and was arrested in early 1955
on charges of conspiring against the state when he called for
the establishment of a two-party system in Yugoslavia in an
interview with a Western correspondent. He was at that time
given an 18-month sentence, but placed on probation for three
years.
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6� SOVIET LONG-RANGE AIRCRAFT ACTIVE IN
WESTERN ARCTIC
Comment on:
FLIGHTS TO NORTHERN AREAS BY SOVIET
LONG RANGE AIRCRAFT 19-20 NOV 1956
inimum+ 20 UNIDENTIFIED AIRCRAFT
TURBO-PROP HEAVY BOMBER
0 400
STATUTE MILES
sfieRrt
V��
N..
more than 20
long-range aircraft in
flights to the Soviet
western Arctic extend-
ing above the 80th paral-
lel� The Soviet long-
range D/F network
plotted these aircraft in
a flight from the Mos-
cow area to a point well
north of Franz Josef
Land. The length of
the flight suggests that
the aircraft were medi-
um or heavy bombers
rather than transports.
The same network
reported a single TU-95
turboprop heavy bomber
in a 14-hour round-robin
flight from its base near
Kiev to a point about 150
nautical miles north of
the westernmost island
21 NOVEMBER 1956
21 Nov 56 Current Intelligence Bulletin
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