Minutes of the Seventh Meeting of the Committee (Deputy- Directors) Held in Conference Room "G", at the Ministry of Defence, S.W.I, on Wednesday, 18th January, 1950, at 11.00 a.m.

2. INFORMATION ON SOVIET FORCES FOR USE BY SECRET DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIVES ABROAD (Previous Reference: J.I.C. (50) 4th Meeting, Minute 7). THE COMMITTEE referred to their previous discussion of a request by the Information Research Department of the Foreign Office for material on which to base a brief for distribution to representatives abroad for use in countering defeatist talk in Allied countries. MR. BRAIN recalled that at their previous meeting it had been generally agreed that, in view of the considerable difficulties which appeared to arise in connection with the provision of material of the kind asked for, it would be desirable if a representative of the Information Research Department could discuss the problem with the Committee. MR. MURRAY said that the main object of his request had been to enable our representatives abroad to be provided with material to counter the very real psychosis of communities on the Continent regarding the possibilities of Soviet invasion. The fear of being over-run once again and resultant defeatism abounded high up the social scale in France and reinforced anti- American, anti-British and anti-Western Union trends particularly amongst "Bloomsbury intellectuals". It had been hoped that the Service Departments might provide material on the Soviet armed forces which would have been of value to this end. COMMANDER RICHARDS said that the Admiralty could provide material pointing out considerable weaknesses in the Russian naval forces and their wide distribution. The overall picture was not, however, encouraging and information of this nature could be of little assistance in stimulating continental thought about invasion. BRIGADIER BOUCHER reaffirmed that the War Office could contribute no material which would be effective in writing down Soviet military strength. He would, however, make available to the Information Research Department a booklet which was held by all Military Attaches abroad on the tactics and organisation of the Soviet Army. The booklet had a low classification and certain items of information in it might possibly be of help. He also drew attention to a report+ by the Committee appreciating comparative factors between Russian divisions and Allied divisions. GROUP CAPTAIN PAUL said that as regards the Soviet air force, the more information which we obtained the more depressing appeared the picture and it was most unlikely that any information which could be made available would have the desired effect. There was, however, one point which the Information Research Department might consider and that was whether anything could be done to prevent the dissemination of information which might encourage defeatism on the Continent. He referred particularly to articles which had appeared in the press quoting information from United States sources regarding the employment of the United States strategic air force, whereby their effort was to be concentrated on the Soviet Union leaving Western Europe to be subsequently liberated. + J.I.C. (48) 76. -2-