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the Governments of India, the Indonesian Republic, Burma and Siam. Nevertheless, the task is by no means easy,

because the peoples involved are still largely unaware of the Russian factor. Communism to most of them now means little

more than Chinese Communism, while Russia to some of them

means a power which vaguely is understood to support national aspirations against European domination.

10. The natural hostility of these peoples to Chinese expansionism will be a factor in stiffening their resistance to Communism as such, but our strong vested interest in good inter-racial relations in Colonial territories precludes direct propaganda, even covertly, to stimulating this hostility.

11.

One important part of the process of making the indigenous communities of South-East Asia aware of the real nature of the Communist threat must consist of communicating hard information on the subject to native Governments. These Goverments are

in a position to exert an influence on their press and publics much greater than in Western countries; they are also astonishingly ignorant of the true nature of Communism, and still largely taken in by its disguises, They are also extremely suspicious of the West. A scheme is now being worked out for communicating to the Govcamonts of Siam, Burma and Indonesia, on a regular basis, hard facts and information about the outside world generally, which they are not likely to learn either through press agencies or their own representatives abroad. If this information comes in time to be accepted as reliable and not unduly biased, these reuments may gradually come to rely on it: and it can contain a

proportion perhaps up to a quarter of material which

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incidentally warns these Governments about the dangers of Communism (including its U.N. tactics, labour policy, internal centralization, hostility to Buddhism and Islam, etc.).

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