Summary

This series holds 3,253 security intelligence files.

A set of 67 files is arranged in a two-number order with an ‘N59/’ prefix (an order which seems to have been imposed in the early 1920s). Many files in this set include papers from WWI.

The rest of the series is in single number order with an ‘N’ prefix.

It appears that some of the WWI files were created by the Intelligence Section, 2nd Military District Headquarters, at Victoria Barracks, Paddington; others by the Provost Marshall’s Office, 2nd Military District at Victoria Barracks, when notified of an internment.

From 1919 the responsible agency was the Investigation Branch NSW of the Attorney General's Department. In December 1945, the Branch became the Commonwealth Investigation Service NSW.

Most files in ST1233/1 were created during WWII before 1941 by the Military Police Intelligence Branch NSW; and between 1941 and December 1945 by the Security Service, NSW (agency number CA 946). When the Security Service disbanded, the files were given to, and renumbered into the case file system of, the NSW CIS.

Function and purpose

Between the wars, files were initiated by applications for Australian naturalisation or by applications for admissions of relatives, when their suitability as Australian migrants or citizens needed assessing. However, relatively few such records are in this series.

The bulk of the material in ST1233/1 dates from WWII, and documents investigations into ‘aliens' (migrants not from a British Commonwealth country), especially ‘enemy aliens’, and into other suspected sources of espionage. After investigation, people regarded as possible threats to the war effort were interned, not always in the same state in which they were captured. Their incarceration and release are usually documented in these files as well.

Most investigation files in ST1233/1 are relatively lengthy. They can include correspondence with NSW and Commonwealth departments, with other states’ Deputy Directors of Security and with lawyers; alien registration forms; anonymous tip-offs; the Military Police Intelligence Section questionnaire for enemy aliens, and the MPI ‘warrant form issued by the General Officer Commanding Eastern Command for arrest and internment’; NSW police reports; statutory declarations by family members and character testimonials by associates; police summaries of interviews; and extracts from other investigation dossiers. Army forms, such as alien form F - ‘warrant for internment of enemy aliens’ - and the ‘summary of personal particulars’ are also in some files. Other documents include the NSW Police form P188 ‘inventory of the property taken from the prisoners named herein’; the internee’s property form; reports on internees made in internment camps; and extracts from intercepted mail or from internment camp weekly intelligence reports.

The alien registration forms in ST1233/1 rarely include photographs. These are likelier to be in a WWII alien registration series, for example SP11/2, SP11/3 or SP11/5.

Before 1941, these WWII investigation records were created by the Military Police Intelligence (MPI) Branch NSW. They were later controlled by the Security Service NSW, in a single number order; and finally renumbered into the Investigation Service’s N-prefixed order.

When an N-prefixed file for an investigated person already existed, the WWII MPI and Security Service papers were usually added to it.

Compared to the investigation files in C123, many ST1233/1 records concern internees. This is because the files in C123 were finalized before December 1945; most files placed into ST1233/1 were still active by then.

Relationships with other records

SP1714/1 is a similar series of investigation files, in single number order with an N prefix.

Sixty-seven of the earlier files in ST1233/1 have file numbers starting with N59/22/. They are apparently related to the WWI investigation files in SP43/2 (the file numbers of which start with N59/20/ or N59/21/). Some files in both series include papers initially compiled by army intelligence or by the Provost’s Office.

ST1233/1 holds records of NSW naturalisations, applied for before WWII. These often hold only the answers to the 'report on application for naturalisation’ questionnaire, recorded by the Investigation Branch NSW. The actual questionnaires were forwarded to Attorney-General’s Department, Canberra, to pass to the Department of Home Affairs. They can often be found in a naturalisation file in series A1. For example, control symbol N6683, ‘George Beven [Investigation Branch NSW - application for naturalisation; box 45]’, barcode 847785 in series ST1233/1, includes a page of answers, without the questions. The complete questionnaire is on page 8 of series A1, 1928/8209, 'Beven, G - Naturalisation certificate’, barcode 1611044.

Series C123 consists of WWII investigation files, the action of which was completed by the Security Service NSW. These files were not top numbered into the NSW CIS’s system of a single number with an N prefix.

Rarely, investigation file material can appear in citizenship files.

Finding Aids

ST1233/1 is listed at item level on the RecordSearch database, as are the related series SP1714/1 and C123.

WWII investigation dossiers in these three series are also indexed by:

· C125, Nominal index cards (by citizenship) to WWII security investigation dossiers - for Australians, British subjects and naturalised ‘aliens’.
· C126, Nationality index cards to WWII security investigation dossiers - for ‘aliens’.

The (single) number found should then be checked against the listing in series C124, the ‘key to dossiers’, which records any top-numbering to an N prefixed file number. Such files may be in series ST1233/1, SP1714/1, ST2951/1, C1070 or C1189. Otherwise, they may have been sent to the Security Service, Central Office in Canberra.

Any dossier numbers not top numbered in C124, should be found in series C123.

The last pages of the Key list files sent to ‘Canberra’ in October 1957, probably to the Commonwealth Investigation Service, Central Office. Some files sent to there may be in series A367, 'Correspondence files’.

Related legislation

War Precautions Act 1914
War Precautions Act 1918
Naturalization Act 1920
National Security Act 1939
National Security (Aliens Control) Regulations 1939

Series history

The following data was keyed from the paper documentation:

Form number: CA 17
Transferring department: Attorney-General's, Commonwealth Police, Sydney
Archives file number: RWS7/5/7