24
Record
I attended a meeting in Sir John Johnston's office this afternoon. In addition to Sir John, those present were;-
Mr. Hall (who had to leave early)
Sir David Trench
Mr. Peck
Er. Littlejohn Cook
2. Sir John explained that the purpose of the meeting was to take a general look at the information services situation in Hong Kong with a view to seeing what could be done at this end to help in the propaganda field. The impression here was that the information staff in Hong Kong were under such heavy pressure that no one there had time to exercise any overall direction and overall control of the propaganda effort. The Governor confirmed that this was the case, although he mentioned that he was speaking without having had any discussion th Mr. Watt on the subject and did not know the latter's views.
3.
The following points were made in the course of the meeting:-
(1) the establishment of the non-executive Working Group
to co-ordinate efforts here;
(2) the basic need for Hong Kong to supply material;
(3) the recent inauguration of the "Talking Points" series
of telegrams sent out by J.I.P.G.D. to posts abroad, based on Press telegrams and other suitable material received from Hong Kong;
(4) the need for more staff in Hong Kong. J.I.P.G.D.
undertook to look into the possibility of making someone available on loan to Hong Kong whose main task would be to produce material and help in co-ordinating the information effort there;
(5) the possibility of obtaining a L.P.S. correspondent to go to
Hong Kong for a couple of months. J.I.P.G.D. would examine;
(6) the possibility of greater help being forthcoming in the future from the I.R.D. Regional Office in Hong Kong;
(7) the possibility of Hong Kong's making use of fee'd
journalists to write feature articles;
(8) the difficulties presented by the Chinese/European
population division, The Governor thought that some 75% of propaganda should be directed at the Chinese community, but this presented language difficulties;
(9) the channel of communication between here and Hong Kong.
The Governor was particularly anxious to know what procedure
should