1. Situation in East Germany; 2. Military Capabilities of the Communists in Korea; 3. Situation in the Caribbean; 4. Defence of the Middle East in the Event of General War 1954-56

GUARD SECRET MR. BARTON agreed that the report would be more useful if it covered the internal situation as well as the external threat, and that it would be possible for the Colonial Office to produce the necessary material. He pointed out that any future trouble in the Caribbean area was likely to have repercussions in the Antarctic. In discussion THE COMMITTEE agreed:(a) that although their report+ on the 'Situation in the West Indies' covered the internal situation in the British territories in that part of the World, it did not provide the Chiefs of Staff with a sufficiently crystallised picture of the current situation; (b) the report under consideration should be rewritten to embrace both the Caribbean area and the West Indies islands, and to cover the internal as well as the external threat to security, and Governmental policy for the future; (c) a first draft of this now paper should be prepared by the Colonial Office as a matter of urgency and forwarded to the Joint Intelligence Staff; (d) it was important that there should be no undue delay in the preparation of the report to minimise the risk of it being out of date by the time it was issued.