FUNCTION AND CONTENT

This series consists of originals and copies of decyphers of telegrams from the Secretary of State for the Colonies containing secret reports of the progress of World War One. Included in this series are a few letters and memoranda but these are merely concerned with the delivery of copies to the Governor General or Prime Minister.

The reports at first were transmitted by the Colonial Office at intervals of between a week and ten days but increased in frequency after the end of 1917 and are very similar in content and arrangement to the printed reports sent with despatches in CP78/27. It is probable that they were also prepared by the Cabinet Secretariat and were sent to the Governors General of all the self governing dominions. It may be that the telegrams were sent as well as the despatches because the delay in the time necessary for the despatches to be delivered was considered to be too great by the dominions.

The telegrams include intelligence drawn from a wide range of sources, both official and unofficial, and supply a continual commentary on the progress of the war. The object in their preparation was evidently to provide the most accurate and informative account possible in general terms of the current situation in all theatres of the war.

On receipt the telegrams were decyphered and normally typed in triplicate - one copy being handed to the Governor General and one to the Prime Minister, the third being filed for reference in the Governor Generals Office. The copies handed to the Prime Minister were retained by him in most cases but those sent to the Governor General were usually returned to the Official Secretary and placed with the offce copy. The latter, together with most of the Governor Generals and a few of the Prime Ministers copies are what makes up this series. 

The decypher of each telegram is headed by particulars of the date and time of the telegrams despatch from London and a reference to the date of the previous despatch in the series. Office copies were marked to indicate that distribution copies had been handed to the Governor General and the Prime Minister (eg - 'Copy to Prime Minister 11/1/18) and were sometimes also marked with the date and time of the telegrams receipt. The original telegrams in cypher were normally destroyed for security reasons the day after receipt.

The copies were put away in chronological order according to the date of despatch from London. Until March 1918 the office copies were numbered consecutively in the top right hand corner of the first page of each telegram, after this date there is no indication that they were controlled in any other way than date order. 
 
Contents - The contents of the telegrams include 'monthly' and 'weekly' military situation reports and Naval situation reports as well as news on foreign affairs. The foreign affairs news includes breakdowns of what intelligence had gathered about internal and military affairs in allied, neutral and enemy countries and is broken down by country. Also discussed are peace discussions held between various countries, including the peace discussions and treaty between the Germans and Russians in 1917 after the Russian Revolution (Brest-Litovsk). 

Within this series there is an almost day by day breakdown of the last great German offensive in France with a daily amendment of the lines given in detail. While the telegrams remain factually based, at this time a hint of desperation appears in the Secretary of States rhetoric.

There are large gaps within this series but while it only covers a short time of the war it is a very useful source of information for students of the time.

FINDING AIDS

All items in this series in the custody of Australian Archives as at December 1996 have been entered onto the item level database, ANGAM II.