Summary heading

A11025 – Name Index cards to records of the Royal Commission on Espionage 

Function and purpose

The Royal Commission on Espionage (RCE) was established in 1954 after Vladimir Petrov defected from the Soviet embassy. The Royal Commission was empowered to inquire into the information Petrov supplied upon his defection, and Soviet espionage operations in Australia more generally. The Royal Commission held hearings on 126 days between May 1954 and March 1955, examining 119 witnesses. Over 500 exhibits were tendered to it, and the resulting transcript of evidence ran to over 3,000 pages. An interim report was released in October 1954 and the final report in August 1955. During the Royal Commission’s investigation, and for some time thereafter, the RCE Secretariat created around 300 files. These were largely concerned with administrative matters, but also included such things as transcripts of in-camera evidence that were never published. The RCE records were transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department in Canberra before the Secretariat ceased to function. Later, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) engaged an archivist to catalogue and index the records. This occurred between 1977 and 1984. The records were transferred to the then Australian Archives for accelerated public release in September 1984.

CRS A11025 consists of a name index for several important record series created by the Royal Commission on Espionage and its Secretariat. These are:

·       A6201 – Exhibits, single number series

·       A6202 – Exhibits, single letter series

·       A6213 – Correspondence files, alpha-numeric series with ‘RCE’ [Royal Commission on Espionage] prefix

·       A6219 – Original signed copy of the ‘Annexure to the Report of the Royal Commission on Espionage’ 1955 (the Annexure contained information that

                     the Royal Commissioners felt could not be publicly released in the main report)

When first transferred into Archives custody, it was deduced that the index had been possibly created as a result of the above-mentioned cataloguing and indexing work within PM&C. In fact, it appears that PM&C staff compiled the index in 1984 to assist with their own access examination of the RCE Records (this access examination occurred before the records were transferred to Archives). The purpose was to record the location of names that would be potentially restricted when the records were made publicly available. A note dated 16 July 1984 accompanies the index, indicating that it does contain names that would be ‘closed’ when the RCE records were released. These names were mainly those of ASIO officers that had not been published by the RCE or subsequently. 

Using the series

The first card in the index provides a list of names of anonymous witnesses whose identities were protected at the hearings. The next 11 cards provide file reference numbers for indexes and lists of names that are filed in CRS A6213 – Correspondence files, alpha-numeric series with ‘RCE’ [Royal Commission on Espionage] prefix. Here, a reference to ‘J/10’ means file RCE/J/10, a reference to ‘H/6’ to file RCE/H/6 and so on.

The actual name index proper consists of 487 index cards arranged alphabetically by surname / codename from A-Z. Each card provides the location of references to a particular name in the different series indexed. Five different formats have been used to record the location of names, depending on which series the name appears in:

1.     alpha/number references (eg. A/16). These references refer to files in CRS A6213 - Correspondence files, alpha-numeric series with ‘RCE’ [Royal Commission on Espionage] prefix. As such, ‘A/16’ actually refers to file RCE/A/16 while a reference to file K/12 is file RCE/K/12;

2.     alpha number references (eg A29). These are references to folios in Exhibits A-G – the ‘Moscow Papers’ that Vladimir Petrov handed over to ASIO when he defected. These are held in the Archives as CRS A6202 – Exhibits, single letter series;

3.     Doc H or Doc J. These are references to Exhibits H and J, which are two English language documents Vladimir Petrov also gave to ASIO. These are also held as part of CRS A6202 – Exhibits, single letter series;

4.     E number or Exhibit number (eg E415 or Exhibit 234). These references are to other exhibits tendered before the Royal Commission (CRS A6201 – Exhibits, single number series);

5.     Annexure: p number (eg Annexure: p 25). These numbers refer to pages in the Annexure to the Report of the Royal Commission on Espionage. The original, signed copy of this document is in CRS A6219.

Some of the cards also provide cross-references to other names / code names in the index. Notations such as ‘NP’ indicate that the Royal Commission did not publish that particular name.

Physical characteristics

The index is housed in a single acid free type 3 box. Each index card is 5cm x 3cm in size. The cards are handwritten, in various coloured inks, with surnames / code names are written in the upper left hand corner of the cards.  Each reference to a name is given on a separate line.

System of arrangement and control

The National Archives has imposed a single number system of control on this series, with the one item being designated as ‘Box 1’. Within the item, the index is arranged alphabetically by surname, from A – Z.   

Relationships with other records

This series essentially consolidates a number of different name indexes that were produced by the RCE Secretariat to control various records in its possession. Many of these original indexes can now be found in CRS A6213.

Access conditions

The entire series is closed to public access. 

Series history

The series appears to have been received into Archives from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in 1985. It was registered as CRS A11025 in 1998. The series was originally housed in two plastic card holders marked ‘Name Index Royal Commission on Espionage: Not to be made available to Researchers’. The cards were divided into surnames A-M and M-Z. The index was rehoused into a single type 3 acid free container at the time of series registration.

Further arrangement and description work was done on this series as part of a Collection Development project involving multiple record series associated with the Royal Commission on Espionage. As a result of this work, the series registration was amended, and a new series note researched and written. 

Sources

National Archives series file for CRS A11025.