Function and Content
This series comprises the main general correspondence files for the Department of External Affairs for the year 1946. The changes in the records reflect the considerable administrative and organisational changes in the Department during this period. The Public Service Board approved a new organisational structure for External Affairs in November 1945.External Affairs was responsible for all relations with overseas governments, including inter-imperial relations; the protection of Australian interests and Australian nationals abroad; all questions relating to treaties and international agreements and international questions affecting policy in respect of trusteeship and mandates, nationality, the status of aliens, immigration, emigration and economic relations. It carried responsibility for all Australian permanent missions abroad, except the High Commissioner in London, and all foreign diplomatic missions and consulates within Australia, including representatives of other Dominions.
All communications between Australia and overseas governments were channelled through External Affairs, as were matters dealt with by other Australian departments and diplomatics missions in Australia and overseas, except the High Commissioner in London. By the end of 1945, there were Australian diplomatic missions or representatives in Canada, the United States, China, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, New Zealand, India, France, Japan, Singapore, Berlin and the Netherlands East Indies. Consulates had been established in New York and New Caledonia. During 1946, Australia opened missions to the United Nations (New York and Geneva), Chile, Brazil, Ireland, China (Shanghai), Thailand and South Africa. An Australian Political Adviser was sent to occupied Japan and consulates were opened in San Francisco, Manila, Bombay and Dili.
A large part of the Department's work was devoted to international conferences and Australian policy towards the large number of international organisations. Australia was represented on all major United Nations bodies and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organisation, the United Nations War Crimes Commission, the International Military Tribunal, the UN Committee on Refugees, the International Emergency Food Council, the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency, the Far Eastern Commission and the Allied Council in Japan. During 1946, Australia sent a comparatively large delegation to the Peace Conference in Paris, which worked though the political, economic, legal and territorial clauses of the peace treaties with Italy, Hungary, Finland, Bulgaria and Rumania.Correspondence and dispatches were received and distributed by the Library, which listed incoming letters, drafts with routine queries and kept runs of information material such as Foreign Office prints. Each Division had a clerk who made up and maintained its files, which were distinguished by a letter prefix. Lists of the files were created and maintained at divisional level. Only after all action was completed were files transferred to the Registry for indexing.
Using the series
When registering the main External Affairs records system used from 1945 to 1947, the Archives decided to treat the records as three separate series, but could have classed them as a single series or as several series distinguished by their alphabetic prefixes.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, it was fairly common to keep a file current into the next year, amending its year date from 1945 to 1945-46. It is likely that that the attempted separation of years was influenced by the practice of the British Foreign Office, which starts a new file on each subject every year.
System of Arrangement and Control
The system used in CRS A1066, A1067 and A1068 is a common multiple number system, where numbers with alphabetical prefixes denotes subject classifications. Because files were controlled by the Divisions, the alphabetic prefix indicates either the Division (ie A for Americas, ER for Economic Relations, IC for International Cooperation, P for Pacific Affairs and PI for Political Intelligence) or the functional class (ie E for Europe, ME for Middle East, S and X for Staffing, L for Library/Archives/Information, Z for New Zealand, etc).
The first element in the file number is the letter showing which area, structural or functional, the item belongs to, as shown below:
Administrative Division
Finance F
Staffing S
Travel T
Library, Archives and Information L
Americas DivisionA
Economic Relations DivisionER
European and Middle East Division
EuropeE
Middle EastM
International Co-operation DivisionIC
(Antarctica to Whaling)
Pacific Affairs DivisionP
New ZealandZ
Political Intelligence and Information DivisionPI
UN United Nations DivisionUN
Relief (UNRRA)R
The United Nations Division was established in 1946, replacing the Post hostilities Division, its files bore the new alphabetical prefix 'UN'. To distinguish between different United Nations elements, its files also have an alphabetical infix, ie WC for War Crimes, ICA for International Civil Aviation, ESC for Economic and Social Commission, etc.
The second element is the year date, [19]46, and a third number standing for a major subject or primary heading, such as a particular country, region, international organisation or function.
The fourth element may indicate how many files have been raised on that subject or function but may also be a subdivision of the primary heading. For example, ER45/2 means a file raised in 1945 by the Economic Division on the United Nations, while ER45/2/2 means that the file deals with the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Depending on the hierarchical structure of the subject matter, there may be a fourth, fifth or even sixth element. The same principle was used in CRS A1838, the main correspondence file series lasting from 1948 to 1990.
Finding Aids
The Archives compiled an inventory to the series in 1989.
Mould
It was found that item in the following boxes in A1067/3; B1069016, B987051, B815772 contained mold affected items. the boxes themselves were not affected and all of the mould was found to be old. None of the mould was active, so the boxes were bagged and an Indicator 28: Refer to Preservation was applied at series level.