HC Deb 02 July 1973 vol 859 cc45-6W
Mr. Gurden

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has any proposals for the publication of a further series of official documents relating to overseas policy.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

Her Majesty's Government have decided to extend into the post-war period the practice adopted for 1919–1939 of publishing documents on British foreign policy. The new collection of the most important documents in the archives of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office relating to British policy overeas will initially comprise two series to cover foreign policy in the periods 1945–1950 and 1950–1955, respectively. The preparation of both series will be undertaken simultaneously. So as to keep the work within manageable proportions, at the start the new series will normally include only Foreign Office documents, but, where appropriate, documents from the archives of the Colonial and Commonwealth Relations Office will also be included. The existing publication by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of India Office documents on the transfer of power and events leading up to it (1942–1947) will continue in accordance with the statement made in the House on 30th June 1967.

The title of the new series will be "Documents on British Policy Overseas". It will in general follow the lines of "Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939" and the editors will have the customary freedom in the selec- tion and arrangement of documents. For the post-war period, however, the great increase in the bulk of the archives presents a special problem. To meet this, it is intended that in some cases the documents printed in the collection shall be followed by printed calendars briefly summarising related documents. Microcopies of these calendared documents will be available for purchase, except in exceptional cases where it is necessary on security grounds to restrict the availability of a particular document, as will be indicated in the text of the calendars. The provision of calendars and microcopies should make it easier to deal with the problem inherent in the greater volume of post-war records while, at the same time, making available to scholars more, and hitherto unpublished, documents.

Mr. Rohan Butler, my historical adviser, has agreed to be the senior editor of the new series.