3
reates may be cited the fact that almost the whole of the
overseas Chinese press in South-East Asia is now toeing the chinese
Communist line and refusing to accept material from British
sources. It may nevertheless be hoped that, by covert or
indirect means, a considerable volume of propaganda may be
directed at these communities and that, if it is effective,
the effect will be transmitted in part to China itself.
Towards the indigenous populations of South-East
Asia the task is theoretically easier: we must hammer into
them the essential opposition of Soviet imperialism to Asian
nationalism and seek to invoke the latter in the cause of
resistance to Communist encroachment.
8.
The Soviet Union has
played into our hands in this task to some extent by declaring
its violent hostility to the Governments of India, the
Indonesian Republic, Burma and Siam.
Nevertheless, the task
is by no means easy, because the peoples and their "intellectuals involved are largely unavare
of the
Russian factor. Communism to most of them now means little
more than Chinese Communism, while Russia to some of them
means a power which vaguely is understood to support national
aspirations against European domination.
9.
It is for consideration how far we can go, if at
all, in the direction of stimulating, covertly or indirectly,
the natural resistance of these peoples to Chinese expansion-
ism as a factor in stiffening their resistance to Communism
as such.
10.
The propaganda task in Malaya is to be carried out
in accordance with a directive agreed between the Colonial
Office and the Foreign Office, a copy of which is attached
X at Annexe "A".
Machinery.
11.
The present machinery for anti-Communist publicity
in the area consists of:
'X. to follow.
(a)/