the stages through which the Joint Intelligence Committee acquired its present responsibilities, but it is desirable at the outset to mention the Committee since it has developed in wartime into the focal point at which all intelligence, military and civil is discussed and the final deductions from it are made. 7. In wartime many of the peace time channels through which intelligence flows dry up, but new ones are opened. The conquest and domination of a large part of Europe by Germany and of much of the Far East by Japan has closed very many of the diplomatic and consular sources of information which were previously available to us.