Minutes of the Seventeenth Meeting of the Committee (Deputy Directors) Held in Conference Room "G", at the Ministry of Defence, S.W.I, on Wednesday, 15th February, 1950, at 11.00 a.m.

3. POSSIBLE COURSES OF ACTION BY THE CONFIDENTIAL SOVIET UNION IN ORDER TO REGAIN COMPLETE CONTROL OVER YUGOSLAVIA (Previous Reference: J.I.C. (50) 13th Meeting, Minute 6) THE COMMITTEE had before them a minute+ by the Secretary covering a note by the Joint Intelligence Staff reporting on their re-examination of the report≠ on the possible courses of action by the Soviet Union in order to regain complete control over Yugoslavia, to which was attached a draft report to the Chiefs of Staff on that subject. In discussion, it was generally agreed that a report to the Chiefs of Staff on the lines proposed by the Joint Intelligence Staff was desirable. Certain comments on the draft report were circulated at the meeting. In view of the fact, however, that these comments could not be satisfactorily resolved in Committee, it was agreed that they should be considered by the Joint Intelligence Staff and a revised draft report prepared. THE COMMITTEE:- Instructed the Joint Intelligence Staff to prepare a revised draft report accordingly. + J.I.C./282/50. ≠ J.I.C. (49) 76 (Final). 4. SEAMEN AND DOCKERS' TRADE UNION CONFIDENTIAL INTERNATIONAL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN THE FAR EAST THE COMMITTEE had before them a minute+ by the Secretary covering a minute by the Secretary, Joint Intelligence Committee, Far East, together with a memorandum by the Joint Intelligence Committee, Far East, on the Seamen and Dockers' Trade Union International and its implications in the Far East, requesting the general authority of the Committee to bringing the facts in the memorandum to the notice of local British shipping firms and asking for advice on the form in which the facts should be presented. MR. BARTON said that he had been advised by one of the Colonial Office Trade Union Advisers that the International Transport Workers' Federation, which had world wide affiliations among Seamen's and Dockers' Unions, had been carrying out an active campaign against the World Federation of Trades Unions, and therefore the Communists, for several years. The Federation was quite strong in the Far East, particularly in Singapore and would seem to be a much more useful vehicle for the obtaining of information about the spread of Communist influence than European masters who had little contact with their crews although they might constitute a useful ancillary. Mr. George Reed of the International Transport Workers' Federation was until recently the Far East representative of the organisation; he was well known to the Colonial Office and a talk with him by a representative of the Committee might well be most valuable. The National Chinese Seaman's Union of Singapore was affiliated to the International Transport Workers' Federation. He was not sure of the Hong Kong position but he did know that Mr. Reed had a number of correspondents there. + J.I.C./281/50. -2-