Summary heading

A6227 – Prime Minister Menzies’ office file of papers relating to the Royal Commission on Espionage 

Function and purpose

This series consists of one item: an orange file folder with brown spine labelled ‘Petrov’. Inside the folder is a collection of various documents relating to the Royal Commission on Espionage. These are:

i)               A pale blue folder labelled ‘Interim Report of the Royal Commission on Espionage – Notes for speech by the Prime Minister, House of Representatives 28^th October 1954. This, in turn, contains typed notes for a speech (annotated by Menzies), a copy of the Royal Commission’s Interim Report dated 21 October 1954 and papers relating to Dr HV Evatt’s comments on that report

ii)             An unregistered Prime Minister’s Department file cover stamped ‘top secret’ entitled “ Christmas Party (Royal Commisison on Espionage – E.J. Ward’s Inquiries and Commission’s Xmas Cards”; and

iii)            Various loose papers mainly relating to Menzies’ statements about the defections and the Soviet’s diplomatic response.  These are

·       Photostat copies of original Russian language statement of EA Petrov dated 22 April 1954 and translation

·       Undated radio broadcast transcript entitled ‘Taken from A.B.C. in Sydney’ relating to the Petrov defection and the Soviet diplomatic response

·       Copy of Record of Conversation between the Soviet Ambassador and External Affairs dated 25 April 1954

·       Translation of the Soviet note severing diplomatic relations with Australia dated 23 April 1954

·       A draft statement regarding Dr HV Evatt’s conduct at the Royal Commission

·       Unofficial translation from Russian of note from the Soviet Embassy, Canberra accusing VM Petrov of embezzling embassy funds

·       Copies of Menzies’ announcement to the House of Representatives on 13 April 1954 and his statement about Mrs Petrov of 20 April 1954, transcripts of a press conference about the Petrovs given on 15 April 1954 and a radio broadcast of 21 April 1954. 

The file appears to have been maintained by Prime Minister Menzies.

Language of material

A photostatic copy of EA Petrov’s statement of 22 April 1954 is in Russian. 

Physical characteristics

The one item in the series is housed in a plain orange cardboard folder with brown spine marked ‘Petrov’ on the front cover. The contents of the folder are held loose inside.  

System of arrangement and control

A single number system has been imposed by National Archives, with the one item in the series being allocated control symbol [1]. 

Series history

The item in this series was found amongst other Prime Ministerial papers of the Menzies –Holt period forwarded to Archives by the then Secretary, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (Sir Geoffrey Yeend) in July 1984. The item was originally controlled under accession number AA1984/339. The original series title was ‘Prime Minister’s Office file on the Royal Commission on Espionage’.

Arrangement and description work was undertaken on the series in May 2005 as part of a larger Collection Development project for multiple record series associated with the Royal Commission on Espionage. As a result of this work, the item entry in RecordSearch was updated, the series note re-written, and the item rehoused with acid free folders in an acid free container. The series title was also enhanced to better reflect the series provenance and contents to read: “Prime Minister Menzies’ office file of papers relating to the Royal Commission on Espionage”.