SECRET
ANTI-COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA IN THE FAR EAST
NOTE: This paper is confined to the spec if ic
issues of anti-Communist publicity in the narrow sense. It does not attempt to deal with the related field of positive publicity about Western achievements and aims, the value of which is axiomatic.
General Policy
1. The broad task of our anti-Communist policy in the Far
East, as seen from London by the Foreign Office and the
Colonial Office, is to impress on the peoples of the area that
Communism is directed by the Kremlin, and its essential
hostility to nationalism in Asia; and thereby to attempt to
offset the anti-imperialist and anti-Western campaign now
being conducted there under Russian-Chinese inspiration.
We should also counter propaganda stating that only adherence
to the Communist bloc can raise the ecenomic and social
standard of the peoples of Asia.
2.
In South East Asia the Overseas Chinese present a
particular and vital problem. Numbering some ten millions,
they occupy such an important economic and strategic position
in many of the territories concerned (and especially the
British territories) that they could create serious political,
economic and strategic difficulties for the West if ever the
great majority of them come under the influence and control
of the Communist Government in Peking, whose openly proclaimed
intention is to destroy "imperialist" and Western influence
throughout the area.
3. Our task in China is not at this juncture to attempt any
subversion of the Peking Government's control or administration.
The end for which we must work is that the Peking Government
should wean itself away from Soviet control and from identity
of policy with the Soviet Union. It may be beyond the powers
/of the