CO537-5132 — Page 57

the Malayan Communist Party, and not as operations by Government against mere banditry.

In Malaya, however,

or

publicity should avoid writing-up international Communism

emphasising the role which the Malayan Communist Party is

playing in a world-wide Communist movement. The line should be

that in Malaya Communism is not acceptable to the peoples of the country who are indeed overwhelmingly opposed to it. The

Communists themselves have put themselves out of Court in

Malaya on three grounds;

(1) They are a small and mostly alien minority seeking to

impose their ideas against the wishes of the great

majority in the country

(ii) they are attempting to do this by violent means,

contrary to all democratic, constitutional and

lawful practice

(iii)

their violence is of a most morbid type consisting of

intimidation, extortion and murder, and they have

achieved nothing but death, destruction and distress.

The same line should apply, with due local modification,

in North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei as well as in the

8.

Federation of Malaya and Singapore.

9. This paper is being conveyed by the Foreign office to

its posts, as appropriate, and by the Colonial Office to the

Governments of the South East Asia dependencies.