Minutes of the sixtieth Meeting of the sub-committee, held in the Secretary's Room, Great George Street, S.W.1. on Tuesday, 23rd November, 1943 at 10.15 am

THE SUB-COMMITTEE:- (1) Thanked Mr. Turner and Mr. Berthoud for their very interesting account of the Axis Oil position: (ii) Invited the Ministry of Economic Warfare to prepare a draft Note to the Deputy Prime Minister, covering the report of the Hartley Sub-Committee: 2. ENEMY OILS AND FUELS COMMITTEE. THE SUB-COMMITTEE were informed that at a recent meeting of the Hartley Committee on Axis Oil a proposal had been considered whereby the Enemy Oils and Fuels Committee should become a Sub-Committee of the Hartley Committee. The Enemy Oils and Fuels Committee, as at present constituted, was a special Committee set up by the Petroleum Board to analyse samples of enemy oil captured at home and abroad. Certain technologists from the leading oil companies and representatives of various Government Departments were members of this Committee, which was under the Chairmanship of Lt.-Col. Auld of the Petroleum Board. The Air Ministry had been consulted, as they were originally responsible for the setting up of this Committee, and they had no objection to the proposal. The Secretary to the War Cabinet had also been approached and had no objection to this Committee coming within the War Cabinet set-up. The Hartley Committee therefore requested the approval of the Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee to this proposal. THE SUB-COMMITTEE:- Agreed to the proposal put forward by the Hartley Committee. 3. COLONEL BASSETT'S VISIT TO WASHINGTON. THE SUB-COMMITTEE had before them a Minute by the Secretary (JIC/1852/43 dated 22nd November, 1943) covering a Memorandum by the Director of Naval Intelligence, setting out the main points in the report of Colonel Bassett's visit to Washington on behalf of the Inter- Services Topographical Department. COLONEL BASSETT said that there were two main points on which the Americans required help from us, namely, arranging the coordination of the topographical questionnaires with those of I.S.T.D. and giving expert assistance in starting production of the JANIS reports, corresponding to our I.S.I.S. reports. It was recommended that Lieutenant Wells should be lent temporarily for this purpose. The U.S. J.I.C. were quite willing to accept the I.S.I.S. reports for any part of the world as they felt that these were in fact an Anglo-American production, on -2-