CO537-6564 — Page 33

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