The Arsenal Files 6/The Arsenal Files 6 (Arsenal Computer).ISO/geneol/pro22txt.zip/PRO_22.TXT

Text File | 1996-01-26 | 19KB | 395 lines

                    **********************************
                          PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
                    RECORDS INFORMATION Leaflet No: 22
                    **********************************

  [Note: this and all other PRO Records Information leaflets are (c)
  Crown Copyright, but may be freely reproduced except for sale or
  advertising purposes.  Copies should always include this Copyright
  notice -- please respect this.]  (C) Crown Copyright, April 1986.

------------------------------ start of text ------------------------------

               THE RECORDS OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE FROM 1782
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Foreign Office, formed in 1782 and merged into the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office in 1968, was the department responsible for the conduct
of British relations with nearly all foreign states between those dates.
The greater part of its records is arranged in seven major categories,
General Correspondence, Registers and Indexes, Embassy and Consular
Archives, Confidential Print, Treaties, Private and Private Office Papers,
and Archives of Commissions and Conferences, together with certain
additional subsidiary series, all described below.


GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE

General Correspondence consists of the original papers accumulated in
London, that is the original despatches from British representatives abroad
with any enclosures; drafts of outgoing despatches; minutes; domestic
correspondence with foreign representatives in this country, with other
branches of the British government and with private individuals and bodies.

Records earlier in date than 1906 are to be found in the classes FO l-FO
84, FO 90-FO 92, FO 95-FO 111. For the most part, they are arranged by
country. In addition, there are some classes of a general or miscellaneous
nature not related to a particular country.

From 1906 the general correspondence covering all countries is arranged in
a small number of subject classes as follows:

Africa, New Series 1906-1913                        FO  367

Claims from 1946                                    FO  950

Commercial 1906-1920                                FO  368

Communications from 1936                            FO  950

Consular from 1906                                  FO  369

Contraband 1915-1920                                FO  382

Cultural Relations from 1944                        FO  924

Dominions Information   1929-1933                   FO  627

Foreign Publicity from  1947                        FO  953

Library from 1906                                   FO  370

News 1916-1939                                      FO  395

Political from 1906                                 FO 371

Prisoners of War and Aliens 1915-1919               FO 383

Treaty from 1906                                    FO 372

Of these the Political (FO 371) is by far the largest and generally most
important.


REGISTERS AND INDEXES

Departmental diaries and registers, and general registers, 1817 to 1920,
are in the class Registers of General Correspondence (FO 566), and for the
most part record the arrival and handling of individual papers and the
despatch of replies. Earlier departmental diaries and registers, 1782 to
1817, are in Miscellanea, Series I (FO 95). The Registers (Library Series)
and Indexes of General Correspondence, 1808 to 1890, are in the class FO
802, and represent the general correspondence as now arranged and bound up,
according to the country classes in the pre-1906 correspondence. Each
register for each country has an index. There are microfilm copies in FO
605. Indexes to the departmental registers in FO 566 for the years 1891 to
1905 are in FO 804. There are photographic copies in FO 738.

Numerical (Central) Registers of the subject series of general
correspondence from 1906 to 1920 are in FO 662. There is a card index in
the Reference Room at Kew to these series for the same years, annually
arranged, referring to subjects, persons and places.  Indexes (Printed
Series) to General Correspondence, 1920 to 1951, are in FO 409. Reprints
of these, referring to subjects, persons and places are available in the
Reference Room.

Where an entry is found in a Register or an Index this does not necessarily
mean that the papers to which it refers have been selected for permanent
preservation.


EMBASSY AND CONSULAR ARCHIVES

These consist of the original despatches received from the Foreign Office
by British diplomatic and consular posts abroad, draft despatches to
London, local correspondence with the government and other authorities of
the foreign state, with other British representatives and agents and
private individuals. Among this category will also be found such other
local records as registers of births, deaths and marriages of British
subjects abroad, consular court records, commercial records of many sorts,
papers about British churches and cemeteries and the estates of British
subjects.

From many missions abroad registers of correspondence survive from the
182Os onwards and many kept entry books of correspondence until the late
nineteenth or early twentieth century. There are many gaps in the series
of correspondence itself, occasioned by accidental losses, deliberate
destruction in time of emergency to avoid the possibility of papers falling
into hostile hands or rejection for permanent preservation. For some posts
no records, or only registers, have been permanently preserved.


CONFIDENTIAL PRINT

From the late 182Os papers of particular significance began to be printed
in several copies and distributed to officials in the Foreign Office, to
the Cabinet, other Departments and to British missions abroad as
Confidential Print. From the 1850s the practice grew until by 1906 nearly
every important despatch or telegram was routinely printed.

Confidential Print, which vary from a single document to a substantial
volume of papers, are numbered individually, roughly in order of printing.
A set of Confidential Print, arranged numerically, from 1827 to 1914, is
in FO 881.  There are parallel series, in some 94 further classes,
duplicating the numerical series for the period it covers but extending to
a much more recent date, arranged variously by country, geographical area
or subject.


TREATIES

Before a treaty is made, the parties exchange the Full Powers or
authorisations granted to their plenipotentiaries. The document reciting
the agreed terms of the treaty, signed and sealed by the plenipotentiaries
of each side is the Protocol. The Full Powers of other parties to treaties,
with the Protocols and any subsidiary documents are in the class of
Protocols of Treaties (FO 93). Those of British plenipotentiaries are in
the class Great Britain and General (FO 83). Following the signing and
sealing of the Protocol, ratifications were drawn up, and signed and sealed
by the head of state of each party and exchanged, or sometimes deposited
in an agreed place if there were several parties. Ratifications of
Treaties, signed and sealed by foreign heads of state, are in FO 94.
Protocols and ratifications of Multilateral Treaties to which the United
Kingdom was a party from 1969 are in FO 949 and those of the European
Economic Community from 1953 in FO 974.


PRIVATE AND PRIVATE OFFICE PAPERS

Until this century many Foreign Secretaries, diplomats and officials took
away as their own property unregistered papers on official business. There
are nearly thirty classes of Foreign Office records consisting of such
private collections later returned to the Foreign Office and transferred
to the Public Record Office. They also include a class (FO 954) of
photocopies of the papers of Anthony Eden first Earl of Avon, Foreign
Secretary 1936-1938 and 1940-1945, whose originals are at the Birmingham
University Library.

During this century Foreign Secretaries, diplomats and officials have been
required to surrender official papers on retirement and a class of Private
Collections: Ministers and Officials: Various (FO 800) contains over
seventy such collections of papers as well as general private office
material.

Certain collections given to the Public Record Office directly or deposited
there, and now to be found among the class of Gifts and Deposits (PRO 30),
also contain or consist of official Foreign Office records.


ARCHIVES OF COMMISSIONS AND CONFERENCES

The Foreign Office records contain the archives of a large number of
international commissions, both those established to deal with matters of
international importance on which several countries were represented in
addition to the United Kingdom, and also those established to deal with
issues between Britain and one other country. Some consist of the papers
of the British Commissioner only, others of papers of the Commission as a
whole.

The archives of some British delegations to International Conferences are
to be found before 1906 in the appropriate country class, or in the Great
Britain and General class (FO 83). There are also papers concerning various
conferences during World War I, of the 1919-1920 Peace Conference, and of
several inter-war conferences among records of the Cabinet Office (CAB 25,
CAB 28-31). Papers relating to conferences during the Second World War are
in War Cabinet: Commonwealth and International Conferences (CAB 99),
Operations Papers (PREM 3) and Confidential Papers (PREM 4). Further
Cabinet Office records relating to conferences will be found in Cabinet
Minutes (CAB 23, 65, 128), Memoranda (CAB 24, 66, 129).

Other archives of conferences form separate Foreign Office classes, such
as those of the 1919-1920 Peace Conference (FO 373-374, FO 608, FO 893),
of the Lausanne and other interwar Conferences (FO 839-840) and of the 1945
Potsdam Conference (FO 934)-


OTHER CATEGORIES OF RECORDS

<The Chief Clerk>

The archives of the Chief Clerk's Department form a separate class (FO
366). They reflect the Chief Clerk's responsibilities for financial and
establishment matters concerning the internal Foreign Office, and the
Diplomatic and Consular services, the Foreign Office Messengers, for audit
of accounts and for accommodation matters.

<Wartime Classes>

Both world wars resulted in the creation of bodies of records of
administrative organisations or local missions, which now form separate
record classes. Among the former are the Restriction of Enemy Supplies
Department, 1915-1919 (FO 902) and the Foreign Trade Department 1916-1919
(FO 833), and the Second World War Ministry of Economic Warfare (FO 837),
Political Warfare Executive (FO 898) and Consular (War) Department (FO
916).

Among the latter are the Jedda Agency (FO 686) and Arab Bureau Papers (FO
882) from the First World War, and the British Mission to the French
National Committee (FO 892) and records of various Ministers Resident etc
(FO 660), the Minister of State, Cairo (FO 921) and the British Middle East
Office, Cairo (FO 957), from the Second.

<Passport Office Records>

The records of the Passport Office, including Correspondence and Registers
of Correspondence (1815-1949), and Registers of Passports issued with
indexes of names (1795-1948), are in FO 610-FO 614.  Representative
examples of passports issued are in FO 655 and representative case papers
in FO 637.

<Records concerning Germany and Austria from 1945>

The Foreign Office inherited the records both of the Control Office for
Germany and Austria, based in London, and of the British Element of the
Allied Control Commissions in Germany and Austria. These include material
also of the Allied Control Authority and Control Council and of some of the
bipartite and tripartite organisations through which the United Kingdom and
the USA, and later France, co-operated in administering what are now the
Federal Republics of Germany and Austria.

The Control Office, the department in London responsible for the exercise
of British control in Germany and Austria, succeeded the Economic and
Industrial Planning Staff administered by the War Office in 1945, and in
1947 became the German Section of the Foreign Office. Its records are in
FO 935-FO 946.

In Germany the allied powers assumed supreme authority following the
unconditional surrender, this authority being exercised from 1945 to 1949
by the Commanders in Chief both separately, each in his own zone of
occupation, and jointly through a Control Council. In 1949 a Basic Law, or
Constitution, was enacted in the three Western zones, and Civil High
Commissioners replaced the military governors. The records of the British
Commissioner and of his predecessor military authority, of his local
administration in the British Zone and of the joint organisations referred
to above are in FO 1005-1006, FO 1008, FO 1010, FO 1012-1014, FO 1023-1039,
FO 1046-1047, FO 1049-1052, FO 1056-1078.

There is also information about the post-war administration of Germany in
Cabinet records, Treasury records, War Office records and in the
contemporary subject series of Foreign Office General Correspondence.


PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED MEANS OF REFERENCE

The Foreign Office records are described in volumes II and m of the
published Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office HMSO, 1963,
1968) and in Parts I (section 802) and II of the Current Guide. They are
more fully treated in Public Record Office Handbooks No 13, The Records of
the Foreign Office, 1782-1939 (HMSO, 1969), which gives a history of the
Foreign Office and a detailed account of its office practices,
paperkeeping, registration, filing and allied subjects. Students of all but
the most straightforward subjects should consult the Handbook to ascertain
for themselves the range of possible sources on their subject within the
Foreign Office classes of records, and for guidance on the best use of the
various finding aids available. Public Record Office Handbook No 15, The
Second World War (HMSO, 1972), describes changes brought about as a result
of the war, and gives details of Foreign Office (and other) classes
transferred up to 1972.

The exact modern PRO reference to individual pieces within a given class
of records is found from the class lists, which for most FO classes depend
on being used in conjunction with the original Foreign Office Registers and
Indexes rather than giving a precise description of the subject of the
contents of each piece. In a separate binder at the start of the FO lists,
labelled FO INDEX, will be found a two part index to the titles of FO
classes. The first part is arranged alphabetically by names of country or
geographical area, listing any class of country General Correspondence,
Embassy and Consular Archives or Confidential Print with that name, and
also any consular or consular court records for that country. The second
part shows the classes arranged in alphabetical order of class title under
the following subject headings:

      Archives of Commissions and Delegations

      Chief Clerk

      Conferences

      Confidential Print

      General Correspondence, Country and Subject

      General Correspondence, Miscellaneous

      Registers and Indexes

      Control Commission classes

      Control Office classes

      Embassy and Consular Archives

      Information

      Maps and Plans

      Passport Office records

      Private Collections

      Treaties

      War of 1914-1918

      War of 1939-1945

      Miscellaneous

In Part I of the Current Guide the 4 appendices to section 802 also list
alphabetically the country classes of General Correspondence before 1906,
the Confidential Print classes, the Embassy and Consular Archives (by
country and then by place), and the consular court and supreme court
records.

Certain of the FO lists were published in the series of Public Record
Office Lists and Indexes, as No LII, List of Foreign Office Records to 1878
(HMSO, 1929). This has been reprinted by Kraus International Publications,
together with volumes in the series of Supplementary Lists and Indexes, No
XIII, volumes 1 to 28, covering General Correspondence, Embassy and
Consular Archives, Confidential Print and various other classes down to
1947. Details are given in the pamphlet, HMSO Sectional List 24, British
National Archives, available by post from HMSO, PO Box 276, London SW8,
and, on personal application only, from the Public Record Office.

The volumes of the printed Indexes to Foreign Office General
Correspondence, 1920 to 1951, have also been reprinted by Kraus
International Publications in 131 volumes, 4 for each year, volumes 77, 82
and 87 being additional indexes to the "Green" or secret papers for 1921
to 1938, 1939 and 1940 respectively.


ACCESS

Under existing legislation British government records are, with a few
exceptions, open to public inspection 30 years after their creation.
Certain records may be closed for 50 or 75 years under s.5(1) of the Public
Records Act or may be retained under s.3(4) if they are concerned with
intelligence or security matters or have a high security content. If whole
pieces are closed or retained their unavailability will be noted in the
lists. Where papers from within files are withheld, a dummy sheet will be
found replacing them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1LR.
  Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU.
  Tel: [phone]

  Opening hours: 9.30am - 5.00pm, Monday to Friday. Closed on public
  holidays and for annual Stocktaking (normally the first two full weeks
  in October).

  Admission is by reader's ticket which will be issued on production of
  proof of identity, such as a (UK) driving licence or passport.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

This text, and that of other PRO leaflets, is also available from:
 - World Wide Web URL: http://sable.ox.ac.uk/~malcolm/genealogy/pro/
 - Anonymous-FTP  (site)  sable.ox.ac.uk
             (directory)  /pub/users/malcolm/genealogy/pro
     - if you have trouble accessing either of the above, please contact
                                    (email) [e-mail]
 - Wishful Thinking BBS (Cheltenham, UK) - SysOp Rosemary Lockie
     Fidonet:  2:253/188         Tel: [phone]
------------------------------- end of text -------------------------------