Summary heading

A6215 – Commissioner Philp’s copies of reference material.

Function and purpose

Mr Justice Roslyn Foster Bowie Philp was a Justice of the Queensland Supreme Court when he was appointed as one of the three Royal Commissioners presiding over the Royal Commission on Espionage (RCE). In March 1955, the Royal Commission Secretariat prepared three sets of ‘workbooks’ to assist the Royal Commissioners with the writing of their report. These workbooks were to include copies of the ‘Moscow Papers and ‘G’ Series of Documents (Exhibits A-G), extracts from other evidence, the Petrovs’ statements, other statements, a précis of evidence and other useful material like the structure of Soviet Intelligence (1). The items titles and contents of CRS A6215 indicate that it consists of Mr Justice Philp’s set of these workbooks.

Language of material

Photostat copies of Exhibits A-G are in Russian. 

Physical characteristics

All items are housed in their original binders or file covers.  Items 1 – 5 are housed in black or dark green ‘Riven’ spring back binders embossed with ‘C. of A.’ on back and front. Attached to these are white labels bearing Mr Justice Philp’s name, and the title given to each item.

Items 6, 8-11 are housed in pink file covers, with ‘TOP SECRET Commonwealth of Australia ROYAL COMMISSION ON ESPIONAGE’ printed on them. Inside Items 8-11 are top secret classified Prime Minister’s Department file covers, with file titles on them.

Item 7 is a red-brown bound copy of the Annexure to the Royal Commission’s Report, dated 22 August 1955. The title is embossed in gold. The item is designated as ‘COPY No 9’.  Item 12 is housed in a plain two-screw brown binder labelled with the file title and Mr Justice Philp’s name.

System of arrangement and control

A single number system has been imposed, with control symbols ranging from [1] – [12]   

Relationships with other records

A6215 forms part of the body of records created by the Royal Commission on Espionage. These records can be broadly divided into three categories: the Records of the Royal Commissioners (series A6214 and A6215), the Records of the Secretariat (A6213) and the records that were assembled as a result of the Royal Commission’s investigations (exhibits, transcripts of proceedings and reports etc).

Since the contents of this series was copied from other Royal Commission files, and the same material can also be found in other series created by the Royal Commission. These include: A6201 Exhibits, single number series, A6202 Exhibits, single letter series and A6223 Printed copy of the transcript for 'in camera' hearings.

Commissioner Owen’s copies of reference materials are now contained in CRS A6214. Items 3 and 5 in A6214 are exact duplicates of items 3 and 5 in A6215. The whereabouts of Commission Ligertwood’s set of reference materials is unknown. They appear to have been returned by ASIO to the then Prime Minister’s Department in 1960, but were not located during a search of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s records prior to the transfer of the RCE records to Archives.

Copies of the final report of the Royal Commission can be found in series A6216 (the signed original copy), A6217 (the Prime Minister’s copy), A6218 (the RCE Secretariat’s copy) and A6235 (printed version for general distribution).

Finding aids

All items in this series have been listed on RecordSearch. 

The National Archives of Australia has produced Fact Sheet 130 – The Royal Commission on Espionage 1954-1955, which details holdings of records relating to the defection of VM and EA Petrov and the subsequent Royal Commission on Espionage. Copies of this can be obtained in National Archives Reading Rooms, and online at: http://naa.gov.au/Publications/fact_sheets/FS130.html         

Access conditions

Items in this series are either OPEN or OPEN WITH EXCEPTION. Please refer to item level entries for further information. 

Series history

This series was received from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet together with A6214 in July 1984, and was originally accessioned as AA1984/327. The series underwent arrangement and description work in April 2005 as part of a Collection Development project involving multiple record series relating to the Royal Commission on Espionage. As a result of this work, all items in this series have been properly arranged and described, entered into RecordSearch at item level, and rehoused in acid-free archival boxes. Unlike Mr Justice Owen, Mr Justice Philp did give titles to most of the items in this series, and these have been used as the basis for item titles. Where titles have had to be partially or wholly imposed by Archives, these appear in square brackets. 

Custodial history

The future custody of classified documents in the possession of the Royal Commissioners was raised prior to the release of the final report. On 11 August 1955, it was agreed that the Royal Commissioners would deposit their copies of these documents with the Regional Director of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in their home states (2). ASIO agreed to make the records available to them in the future on request and the Prime Minister’s Department was to advise on the disposal of the records when the former Royal Commissioners died or left their home states (3). In accordance with these agreements, the items in this series were deposited with ASIO in Brisbane in December 1955 and March 1956 (4). Mr Justice Philp’s reference materials were returned by ASIO to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in 1981. They were then housed with other RCE records. 

Endnotes

(1)  Memorandum from KH Herde, Secretary RCE, to the Royal Commission Secretariat 11 March 1955. A6213, RCE/A/5.

(2)  Memorandum from CP Alpen, Acting Secretary RCE to the Royal Commissioners 10 August 1955. A6213, RCE/W/2.

(3)  Regional Director, ‘D’ Branch, Brisbane to CP Alpen, 7 Mar 1956 ‘Receipt for Classified Documents Received’). A6213, RCE/W/2.

(4)  Ibid and letter from CP Alpen, Secretary, RCE to Regional Director, ‘D’ Branch, Brisbane, 8 March 1956.