Minutes of the Fifty-second Meeting of the Committee, Held in Conference Room "G", at the Ministry of Defence, S.W.1. on Thursday, L8th May, 1950 at 10.30 a.m.

TOP SECRET Hong Kong. Besides his meeting with the staff of Victoria University in Hong Kong and with other officials, he had also attended two meetings of the Local Intelligence Committee (L.I.C.). He had received a very good impression of the L.I.C. which appeared to be working most smoothly and satisfactorily. The Commissioner of Police, who was a member of the L.I.C., had been most helpful. In his opinion, Hong Kong provided a most useful source of intelligence as it could act as a window into the whole of China and possibly beyond. Although it was difficult for a European to cross into China there appeared as yet to be no obstacles to the free passage of Chinese over the border, so that there was scope for valuable intelligence to be obtained from academic, commercial and family contacts between Hong Kong and the mainland. He had made arrangements for all possible relevant information obtained in Hong Kong to be passed to the Directorate of Scientific Intelligence. His general impression of Hong Kong was one of teeming prosperity, although based possibly on a brittle economy and it formed a most favourable contrast with the difficulties which were being experienced on the mainland. One strength of the situation in Hong Kong was that Chinese were being employed to handle Chinese (unlike in Malaya) and he had formed the view that there had been a favourable change of sentiment towards the United Kingdom in the past six months. Malaya. He had attended two meetings of the Joint Intelligence Committee (Far East) and had also had discussions with the Joint Intelligence Staff in Singapore. He had concluded, that from the point of view of scientific intelligence, there was not so much information to be obtained as from Hong Kong but he had made connections with the University, certain technical organisations, and officials who were ready to help. He had received the impression that much of the trouble in Malaya was due to lack of intelligence and this was accentuated by difficulties caused by the structure of the Federation, weaknesses in the Special Branch and the fact that authorities were not in good touch with the Chinese population. The employment of Malays in the police and Administration was a disadvantage as regards dealings with the Chinese in that the former, though charming, were frequently indolent and unintelligent and no match for Chinese. He had been informed by the Professor of Chemistry at Singapore University that 70% of his students were Chinese, 30% Indians and no Malays. This state of affairs would have unfortunate consequences since there must be an adequate body of technically qualified persons to help in the running of the country. He had also had discussions in Malaya on the vulnerability of the rubber plantations, on which a report had already been submitted+ to the Committee. He had found the fears expressed in that report of the menace of leaf disease of rubber fully confirmed. Certain Viet Minh instructions had been captured in which guerillas had been ordered to attack rubber by the dissemination of fungus and bacterial diseases. Such diseases were local and would not do much damage but it indicated that the directors of guerilla activities were interested in attacks on rubber. American Synthetic rubber interests had published a statement on American dependence on natural rubber and had referred to the vulnerability of such rubber to leaf disease. The Communists could, therefore, be fully aware of the potentialities of an attack on rubber by this disease. The Pathologist in the Malayan Ministry of Agriculture and the Chief of the Rubber Growers' Research Institute had confirmed that the disease could be started + J.I.C./561/50. -2-