EXECUTIVE BOARD
Tuesday, 11th March 1941

Present :

D.G.

D.D.G.

Sir Maurice Peterson

Lord Davidson

Sir Kenneth Clark

Mr. Wellington

Mr. Gates

Mr. Waddell (Secretary)

1. The minutes of the meeting on the 7th March were taken as read and approved.

2. SUGGESTION THAT AUTHORS BE ATTACHED TO THE SERVICES

[LE/2/15]

Some doubt was felt as to whether the authors referred to in Mr. Priestley's letter were to be set free of ordinary military duties in order to do the writing he proposed, and it was felt that in any case the Ministry could not commit the Service Departments to accepting his proposal. It was therefore agreed that the D.G. should send Mr. Priestley an interim reply putting off the idea of a deputation being received from the Authors’ National Committee; and meantime should consult the Service Departments.

3. USE OF WIRELESS IN THE EVENT OF INVASION

[B/113]

The D.G. referred to a letter of 7th March (which was being circulated) from the Private Secretary to the Lord President. An enclosure to this letter gave the view of the Chiefs of Staff that they believed the dissemination of news and instruction by wireless for as long as possible to be not only desirable but necessary.

4. WEEK-ENDS

[A/218]

The D.G. referred to difficulties in which he had found himself through not being able to get advice from the Foreign Office News Department about King Haakon's welcome to the Lofoten Islanders. It 355 - 2 -was felt to be undesirable that a rigid rota system should be instituted for week-end duty, and it was agreed that it should be left within the discretion of Controllers and Heads of Divisions to see that adequate staff was on duty at week-ends.

5. INVASION LEAFLET

[GP/39/23.]

Sir Kenneth Clark reported that the Prime Minister had now seen and approved the draft of the leaflet, subject to the elimination of “Stay Put” and substitution of “Carry on and stand firm”. He had also written an introduction which he would sign. The draft was to go to the Cabinet on Thursday, and in view of this it seemed probable that the Sunday papers would be publishing the substance of the leaflet about a week before the public would receive copies by post. It was agreed that in the circumstances this could not be avoided, and it was suggested that the Press might include with their notices of the leaflet an intimation that copies would not be distributed for about a week.

6. EVASION OF CENSORSHIP

[CN]

The D.D.G. referred to ingenious means by which newspapers had conveyed to the public the identity of the restaurant bombed on Saturday, 10th March. In all probability items of the sort in question had not been submitted for censorship and the Scrutiny Section would write to the newspapers concerned but it was felt that this sort of incident had an undesirable effect among, for example, people whose letters to the Press were held up on security grounds.

Reference was made to an incident concerning evasion of censorship by the DAILY TELEGRAPH; a letter had been addressed to the newspaper and it seemed probable that a prosecution would be necessary.