CO537-5132 — Page 63

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12.

to do more than conduct the most modest of "positive"

projection of Britain, though they may serve a

considerable purpose in collecting information on

Chinese internal administration, press, propaganda,

etc.

The Regional Information Office, Singapore, was set

up as part of the Commissioner-General's Office in response to

a proposal from the Commissioner-General made in 1948. Its

functions are to inspire and serve the Information Officers

and Public Relations Officers in the area as a whole. As part

of the Commissioner-General's Office, it is not in the position

of a Ministry of Information branch, 1.e., it has no authority

or co-ordinating functions in respect of the officers of any

of the British territories or of our Missions.

13.

One of the principal reasons why it was deemed

essential to instal a Regional Information Office serving all

these posts was that the Information Departments in the Foreign

Office and Colonial Office are too remote from the Asian scene

to be able to devise material which could have a political

effect in South-East Asia without having some relay point for

transmuting this material into forms acceptable to Asian

publics. It followed that the Regional Information Office was

to be supplied with raw material from the Information Depart-

ments in the Foreign Office and Colonial Office and to be in

a position to edit this material and to organize, with the

agreement of the Public Relations Officers and the Information

Officers in the area, its large-scale distribution or its

publication, for example, in local journals.

14.

The Director of this Regional Information Office

has returned recently to London for consultations, and, in

agreement with the Colonial Office, measures are being taken

to ensure that the work undertaken by his office is on a

considerably/