Minutes of the Twentieth Meeting of the Committee, Held in Conference Room "G", at the Ministry of Defence, S.W.I, on Tuesday, S1st February, 1950 at 10.45 a.m.

TOP SECRET GUARD releases had in future to be channelled through the E.M.I. Sub-Committee, considerable delays might result and the E.M.I. Sub-Committee would have to deal with a very large quantity of material. REAR-ADMIRAL LONGLEY-COOK said that because there was no central check on the many releases of information carried out by Departments, the Delegation had felt strongly that all previous rules should be cancelled and a new policy drawn up, in conjunction with the agreements reached in Washington. They considered that there would have to be a Central Registry for recording all releases of information to ensure that under no circumstances was it possible for any breaches of the agreements to occur. Information of United Kingdom origin was not covered by the agreements reached in Washington but instances had occurred in the past, as for example over V.T. fuzes, where United States information had been released in error as United Kingdom information, and it was essential to ensure that such instances could never occur again. He therefore suggested that all further disclosures by Departments should be suspended pending the institution of revised machinery to handle them. In discussion, it was generally agreed that in theory it we desirable that all disclosures should be suspended until the new machinery was working satisfactorily. In view, however, of the considerable "In practice, however, a considerable backlog and possible confusion would result from a complete suspension of all releases until the new machinery was working. It was agreed that the present system of release of information of undoubtedly United Kingdom origin by Departments should continue for the time being." It was also suggested that in order to reduce the quantity of work which would face the new E.M.I. Sub-Committee, it should be recommended to the Release of Information Policy Committee that proposals to release information in the following categories need not be referred to the E.M.I. Sub-Committee provided that records of the releases were made and periodical returns made to the E.M.I. secretariat:- (a) Training and maintenance publications concerning equipment already in general use by the armed Services of a third nation. (b) Information of purely United Kingdom origin passed 'X' to members of the Brussels Treaty and North Atlantic Treaty Organisations under the METRIC and COSMIC procedures respectively. (Releases of information to those countries outside these procedures would have to be referred to the E.M.I. Sub-Committee.). As regards the release of combined United Kingdom/United States information to Western Union countries, it was pointed out that proposals could not at present be submitted to the United States authorities until the Combined Military Information Board had laid down the relevant procedure. It was -2-