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negative anti-Communist aspects of our propaganda to the detriment of the positive side. He tabled a paper on Propaganda in the Current Emergency (in Singapore). (See Appendix "C". This paper was liscussed later sce paragraphs 50-52 below.)
10.
Mr. F.R.H. Murray and Mr. Rayner said that they fully appreciated the importance of positive propaganda and that it was taken for granted that the major portion of Information work would consist of it.
11.
Mr. Cable (Djakarta) pointed out the importance of the geographical factor in the propaganda approach. For example, in Indonesia where the Chinese were an unpopular and rela- tively weak minority, the approach would have to be radically different from that in Malaya.
12.
During discussion on the possibility of changing propaganda policy in regard to the Peking Government, Mr. Carleton Greene (Federation of Malaya) said that the first priority was more intelligence about China; until this was obtained a modification of policy was of loss importance. Mr. Joy (Saigon) suggested that we might achieve more success by attacking North Korea and the Vietminh, since this was permissable within the limi- tations of present policy.
13.
Mr. Ratcliffe (Kuching) said that wo could do more to disprove the contention that Social Democracy is not for export by stressing British exportation of Socialism.
It was agreed that the level of much of the material which reached the posts assumed too high a level of intelligence on the part of Asians, and that I.0.'s had not the time or the staff to reduce it all to the appropriate level. Commander Whitworth (R.N.) felt that the services could be used to a much greater extent to exploit such means as visits of ships and flights of aircraft.
14.
L
The Conference considered PR.11/183/G paragraph by paragraph.
15.
On paragraph 5 Mr. Rayner said that it was difficult to illustrate the situation in China from precedents in Eastern Europe. There was general agreement, with the exception of Siam where Communist papers use East European analogies to justify their policies, and where it would therefore be useful to use them ourselves to achieve the reverse effect.
16.
It was generally agreed that there had been a natural reaction following carly enthusiasm over the victory of the Peking Government (cf. paragraph 8, first sentence of paper under reference). Mr. Pakenham (Indonesia) said that in Indonesia a distinc- tion was drawn by Overseas Chinose between
/the Peking......
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