ANNEX C
GOVERNMENT FILES ON THE ISSUEAll
historical government files are in the public domain. Some of
these have been opened up on an "accelerated opening"
basis and others, because they contain details of named individuals,
on a "privileged access" basis. Even files subject to
restricted access have been made available by way of privileged
access to the Child Migrants Trust (UK), and are similarly available
to other bona fide researchers.The Department of Health
have responsibility for approving access to these privileged files.
David Matthews in the Department of Health can arrange for access
to these files for any researcher the Committee wish to send.The
following is background information and a list of the files transferred
from the Home Office to the Department of Health when responsibility
for children's services was transferred in the early 1970s.It
is possible, though unlikely, that a small amount of additional
material (if any exists) which is directly relevant to this topic
may have been deposited in the Public Record Office. However,
any files dealing with this matter which may have been preserved
there, will probably be distributed in diverse classes of records
in the PRO's holdings (which total over 170km of repository shelves).
It is likely that significant resources would need to be dedicated
to tracing such material, without any guarantee of success. Staff
at the PRO will readily offer advice and assistance to researchers,
but would not themselves be allowed to carry out a wide-ranging
and highly speculative search of this sort.
EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
(KEW) GUIDE "Dominions
Office 805/2/1 805/2/1 OVERSEAS SETTLEMENT DEPARTMENT,
OVERSEAS SETTLEMENT BOARD AND OVERSEAS MIGRATION BOARD In 1925
the Overseas Settlement Department and the Overseas Settlement
Committee were transferred from the Colonial Office (803/2/) to
the Dominions Office. An Inter-Departmental Committee on Migration
Policy examined the whole question of emigration from the United
Kingdom to the Commonwealth, and recommended (Cmd 4689 of 1934)
a revised system. In 1936 the department ceased to exist as a
separate entity and the committee was replaced by the Overseas
Settlement Board, responsible for advising the Secretary of State
on matters of migration policy. The Board was composed of five
unofficial members appointed by the Secretary of State, to represent
respectively organised labour, business interests, social services,
women's interests and migration organisations; three officials
from the Treasury and the Dominions Office; and was chaired by
the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Dominions Affairs. The Board
was purely advisory in function, unlike the earlier Committee,
as the reduced number of emigrants mean that there was no justification
for an extensive government service to migrants, and it did not
take on the functions of interviewing candidates, and publishing
information and advice that the Committee had exercised. Its activities
were suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War, which
it did not survive.Under the Commonwealth Relations Office, the
Board was revived with the same terms of reference in the form
of the Overseas Migration Board in 1953, as the numbers of emigrants
increased to pre-1930 levels. In the new Board, the official members
were replaced by three members of parliament, and the joint secretaries
were from the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Ministry of
Labour. Officials from both these departments attended Board meetings
as observers.Correspondence of the Overseas Settlement Department
is in DO 57, with registers in DO 5 and DO 6. Minutes of the meetings
of the Overseas Settlement Board are in DO 114/89-90. The papers
of W B Amery while British government representative in Australia
for migration (1925-28) and principal, Overseas Settlement Department
(1929-31) are in DO 190. Records of the Commonwealth Relations
Office departments that dealt with the Overseas Migration Board
are in the MIG series in DO 35, and in DO 175." SEE THE
START OF PART I FOR NOTES ON THE CONTENTS AND ARRANGEMENTS OF
THESE ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORIES
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