§ Mr. Wallaceasked the Prime Minister what arrangements he is making for the preparation of official histories of peacetime episodes.
§ The Prime MinisterOn 9th March, 1966, I informed the House that the Government proposed to extend the range of the official histories, hitherto confined to the two Great Wars, to include selected periods or episodes of peacetime history. This would be on the basis that, although works of this kind would not necessarily be suitable for publication before the expiry of the "closed" period, they would enable important periods in our history to be recorded in comprehensive412W and authoritative narratives, written while the official records could still be supplemented by reference to the personal recollections of the public man who were involved. I later informed the House that the mechanism for obtaining inter-party agreement on subjects to be covered by the proposed histories would be a standing group comprising one privy councillor from each of the political parties.
Since then suitable subjects have been considered in consultation with the standing group of privy councillors; and I am pleased to be able to announce that three histories in the new series have now been commissioned as follows:
- (i) Colonial Development 1945–1964, to be written by Mr. D. J. Morgan, B.Sc.(Econ.), Reader in Economics in the University of London.
- (ii) Environmental Planning, to be written by Professor J. B. Cullingworth, B.Sc., Professor of Urban and Regional Studies in the University of Birmingham, in collaboration with Mr. Gordon E. Cherry, B.A., Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Urban Regional Studies in the University of Birmingham.
- (iii) Nationalisation: An Analytical Account 1945–1960, to be written by Mr. D. N. Chester, C.B.E., M.A., Warden of Nuffield College, Oxford.