Summary heading

A10930 – Unbound volumes of transcripts of proceedings for the Royal Commission on Espionage, with index 

Function and purpose

This series comprises an unbound set of official transcripts of both public and in-camera proceedings for the Royal Commission on Espionage 1954-1955, and an index to them. Items in the series were accumulated by the Official Secretary to the Governor-General, who was on the distribution list for these transcripts (1). Accumulation occurred over the period 2 June 1954 (indicated by the Official Secretary’s date stamp on the first transcript) until May 1956, when the printed index to the transcripts was made available (2).

The Royal Commission on Espionage had a total of 126 days of hearings in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne between 17 May 1954 and 31 March 1955. These were both public and in-camera, and provided the opportunity for a variety of individuals to provide information or answer allegations before the Royal Commissioners. It was the Royal Commission on Espionage Secretariat’s policy that within about 45 minutes of the end of each sitting day, an unedited and uncorrected duplicated transcript was made available in limited numbers to officials (including the Official Secretary to the Governor-General), Royal Commission staff and counsel appearing before the Commission. After the duplicated version was checked and edited, 2,000 copies of the official printed version were produced per sitting, and released for circulation. The circulation of the printed version included private individuals and institutions, which could purchase copies for a nominal fee (3).   

Physical characteristics

The transcripts are foolscap sized printed documents of varying lengths. Each transcript has its own title page, giving the date of the hearing, the cumulative hearing day, whether the evidence was taken in-camera, a brief index of the proceedings, and a list of key Royal Commission personnel and counsel appearing before the Royal Commission.

The index to the transcript is a foolscap-sized publication, bound in soft cardboard cover, and is 160 pages in length.    

System of arrangement and control

The Royal Commission on Espionage Secretariat advised on the following arrangement of the transcripts for the purposes of binding (4):

However, when received into National Archives custody, the items in this series were arranged chronologically, with the printed in-camera transcripts inter-sorted into the other transcripts according to date. Rather than being the last item in the series, the index was physically the first. This order has been maintained in the single number system that has been imposed on the series by the National Archives. The range of control symbols is from [1] – [135].

Relationships with other records

A bound set of transcripts is kept at the National Archives’ Sydney Office and is known as SP950/2. Unbound printed copies of the in-camera transcripts kept by the Royal Commission’s Secretariat can be found in series A6223; while series A6213 contains copies of the unedited and uncorrected duplicated versions that were used to produce the printed official version.

The Exhibits tendered to the Royal Commission and referred to throughout the transcripts can be found in two separate record series:

A6201 – Exhibits, single number series

A6202 – Exhibits, single letter series   

The hearings were an important aspect of the Royal Commission’s investigative functions, and were crucial to its findings. Copies of the Final Report can be found in various record series, including A6216, A6217, A6218 and A6235.

Finding aids

The index (Item 1 in the series) covers both the public and in-camera hearings and is arranged alphabetically by name/subject. It provides ready reference to the relevant page / paragraph in the transcripts and witnesses’ names.          

Series history

This series was transferred to the National Archives from the Official Secretary to the Governor-General in 1998. When originally transferred, the transcripts were in two bundles, with the index at the front. Only three control symbols were imposed on the series at the time: [1] for the index to the transcripts, [2] for a bundle of transcripts dating from 17 May 1954 to 14 September 1954 and [3] for the remainder of the transcripts until 31 March 1955.

Arrangement and Description work was done on the series in May 2005 as part of a larger Collection Development project for records associated with the Royal Commission on Espionage. As a result of this work, the two bundles were broken up, with each separate transcript being registered at item level in RecordSearch. The series registration was updated and the series not re-written. The series was also rehoused in acid-free folders and boxes.     

End notes

(1) See A6213, RCE/T/9.

(2) It should be noted that with one exception, the printed versions of transcripts for the in-camera proceedings were not released until August 1955.

(3) KH Herde, Secretary to the Royal Commission on Espionage to the Government Solicitor, 13 Jul 1954. A6213, RCE/T/8.

(4)  Form letter used by CP Alpen, Acting Secretary, Royal Commission on Espionage (no date). A6213, RCE/T/5.