Memorandum, State Department Summary of Telegrams

MLTCNavo 1 Artel300 OFFICE OF DECLASSIFIED THE SECRETARY OF STATE E.O. 12065, Sec. 3-402 WASHINGTON State Dept. Guidelines, March 6, 1982 December 20,, 1951 By. DEB NTT, Date 9-6-8 TOP SECRET SECURITY INFORMA TION SUMMARY OF TELEGRAMS FRANCE Prime Minister Pleven and Finance Minister Rene Mayer appeared before the Finance Committee of the National Assembly Tuesday and, according to Finance Ministry sources, they told the Committee that the government intended to increase its 1952 calendar year military budget to the 1190 billion francs which had been recommended by the Executive Bureau of the TCC. The Government in- - tended, however, that the budget should be provisional for the first two months of 1952. Mayer explained that the TCC report sees the need for a larger military program in France than this budget would provide, and accordingly negotiations are still underway with the US and other NATO nations to determine how additional expenditures, particularly for addi- tional production and infrastructure, might be financed. Mayer said that final decisions may not be reached until after the Lisbon meeting of the No rth Atlantic Council in February acted on the TCC report, and the final French budget might not be ready for the Finance Committee of the As- - sembly until that time. Mayer's report to the Committee caused M. Bidault, the Defense Minister, to tender his letter of resignation immediately and he was induced to pocket his letter only with great difficulty. Ambassador Bruce comments that Bidault's resignation at this period would be exceed- ingly serious politically. Bruce says he is trying to induce Bidault to post- pone any action of such a nature until at least after the Lisbon meeting. EGYPT Ambassador Caffery reports that King Farouk has grown progressively more angry with the Wafd gov- ernment and particularly the way in which it has consistently out-maneuvered him ever since the abrogation of the treaty. Farouk is now determined to break the present government, but to do so he is in need of two things: 1) an occasion on which he can do so without putting himself in the wrong with the public; and 2) an indication from the British that they would be prepared to settle with a successor government along the lines sufficiently accept- able to the Egyptian public to render the successor government's position tenable. TOP SECRET SECURITY INFORMA TION