This series contains files that record all activities of the Department arising specifically from the World War II. It includes correspondence with Department of Defence relating to general war preparations, as well as matters of immediate concern to the Post Master General such as censorship, control of radio services, manpower matters, emergency telephone and telegraph arrangements, POW mails and military Post Offices.
The great majority of these files contain papers classified as Secret or Confidential. By far the largest proportion of the files relates to supply, testing and installation of equipment and facilities for the armed services. Some later files relate to restoration of telegraph services with various countries, and to matters such as mails for Commonwealth Occupation forces in Japan.
The files in this series were given a "W" prefix, denoting that they held information associated with the wartime activities of the Department, followed by a primary subject number. Subsequent files for a particular subject were allocated secondary numbers in sequence as they were raised; for example W120 was the file number for "Army Signalling Equipment Priorities", and other files covering Army Signalling Equipment Priorities were raised as required and numbered W120/1, W120/2 etc. up to W120/1932.
The records in MP721/1 are part of the Commonwealth Record Series B2947, but have not been physically converted to B2947. They should be requested under the MP721/1 number.
History Prior/Subsequent to Transfer:
The series seems to have been begun in about March 1938, and it incorporates a few earlier papers from the G system, or unnumbered ones which were presumably security classified. Most of the files were in use only during the period of and immediately after the war, but action continued on a few until 1950.
Administrative information
The following data was keyed from the paper documentation:
Form number: CA 17
Creating department: Postmaster-General's, Central Staff Personnel Branch, General Staff & Administration Section
Transferring department: Postmaster-General's, Central Administration, Management Services Division, Establishments Branch, Personnel Section, Central Registry
Date of transfer: 02/07/1964
Archives file number: RWM14/1/21