CO537-6578 — Page 57

SECRET

3.

extremely black there have been a good many improvements during the last year.

If I might look back for a moment, at the beginning of this year there seems very little which was going to stop the Communist in South East Asia, Certain things have happened since

then. For instance in Indo-China and Indonesia, where the

Communisus had perhaps the easiest targets, there has been, an advance. The three Associate States have been set up in Indo-China. Indonesia has gained its full independence; and there has been a

remarkable rise in the interest shown by the United States in this

area, which at the beginning of the year no-one would have been able

to foretell.

On the Commonwealth side there has been a great effort

made to achieve a combined effort to solve the economic problem which has resulted in the Colombo Plan. That may be a very long term but it does represent a combined effort by the Commonwealth which we had no right to foresee at the beginning of the year. Then again

there has been the intervention of the United Nations in Korea.

The difficulties we face in propaganda are obvious enough. The Communists have the advantage of centralised direction, and they have unity of doctrine. We on our side have no rigidly formulated

positive doctrine, and, on the contrary, the whole essence of our system is freedom of thought and variety of opinion. We have some

particular difficulties. Political difficulties resulting from a

divergence of policy between ourselves and the United States over

China, and a difference of outlook between ourselves and France

on Colonial Policy. We have also to contend with a restriction on

our propaganda about China resulting from H.M. Government's present

policy towards the Chinese Government. We have to realise also that

the Communists have the advantage of being on the offensive, being able to choose and switch their targets. They are also playing in our half of the field and the time has not yet arrived when we can

tackle them in their own. It must also be admitted that it is a

much easier task to appeal to all kinds of discontent than to try to

/prove to