the Governments of India, the Indonesian Republic, Burma
and Siam.
Nevertheless, the task is by no means easy,
because the peoples involved are still largely unaware 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.
10. The natural hostility of these peoples to Chinese
expansionism will be a factor in stiffening their resistance
to Communism as such, but our strong vested interest in good
inter-racial relations in Colonial territories precludes direct
propaganda, even covertly, to stimulating this hostility.
11. One important part of the process of making the indigenous
communities of South-East Asia aware of the real nature of the
Communist threat must consist of communicating hard information
on the subject to native Governments.
These Governments are
in a position to exert an influence on their press and publics
much greater than in Western countries; they are also
astonishingly ignorant of the true nature of Communism, and
still largely taken in by its disguises, They are also
extremely suspicious of the West. A scheme is now being
worked out for communicating to the Governments of Siam,
Burma and Indonesia, on a regular basis, hard facts and informa→
tion about the cutside world generally, which they are not
likely to learn either through press agencies or their own
representatives abroad. If this information comes in time to
be accepted as reliable and not unduly biased, these Governments
may gradually come to rely on it: and it can contain a propor-
tion perhaps up to a quarter
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of material which incidentally
warns these Governments about the dangers of Communism (including
its U.N. tactics, labour policy, internal centralization,
hostility to Buddhism and Islam, etc.).
/12.