CO537-6578 — Page 59

5.

SECRET

consider those two separately and we have also got to make sure

they are linked and geared together.

That broadly speaking is how I see our special task in

this area,

For some time past we have been taking a leaf out of

the enemy's book and gone in for criticism and self-criticism.

We have been and still are woefully short of the wherewithal to

carry on the task; but last May we started to consider whether,

apart from this, we were aiming at the right objectives; and we came to the conclusion that wo badly wanted more information, partly about the effect of our present propaganda and partly about the effect of the enemy's propaganda, and partly what other people on our own side were doing. We decided to send the Regional Information

Officer on tour round the area to try to discover these things; and

we sent out a questionaire to all the posts concerned on the main

points that we wanted to know. There was also much consideration

of the extent to which we can link our efforts with the activities

in the propaganda field in the United States in particular and

perhaps with other countries. As a result of the R.I. Officer's

tour a report was prepared and sent home in September; and at

London's request it has since been supplemented by comments both

from here and other posts on how to deal with the very special

problem in South East Asia presented by the large Chinese communities.

In all these ways a great deal of preparatory work has been done

and a great deal of information collected; but it has all taken a

very long time 6 months meanwhile events roll on; and it is up to

G

us here and now to try and translate all that has been done into

action, and we have got to do it with a sense of the very greatest

urgency.

Unhappily also we must work, too, in the full realisation

However much we may believe

of the gravity of the present moment.

that the Kremlin may go to the brink of war but not over it, We

have got to face the prospect that at any moment now we may find

/ourselves