Telephone Nos. :—LEEDS 58241-2-3

Tel. Address:- “Miniform, Leeds”

Ref. HP. 106/17

R/KS

NORTH EASTERN REGION,

7, WETHERBY ROAD,

OAKWOOD,

LEEDS, 8.

[H.P. 106/17.]

June 21, 1945.

Dear Briggs,

Happy is the nation without a history, but happier still the Government Department that can write its own.'

I think we are a little too near to the crowded events of the war, still too much subject to their jostle and impact, to form an objective judgment upon the wisdom of the course we have pursued. The facts can certainly be set out and I do agree with you that each Region should deal with its history, as it had to deal with its problems, in its own peculiar way.

I am glad you emphasise that this is a long-term task. You will, I am sure, appreciate that I have already lost both my Deputy and my Meetings Officer, and there is no prospect whatsoever, of slack time among the Officers; indeed one wonders how leave is going to be arranged this summer. I could reel off, in the course of a few hours, an impressionistic review of the Regional work since December, 1939, but documentary history is another pair of shoes, 2 entailing laborious research through the files. However, the project will be “borne in mind” in accordance with the best traditions of the Civil Service.’

Yours sincerely,

[R.K. Bacon.]

D.B. Briggs Esq.,

Ministry of Information,

Russell Square House,

Russell Square,

London, W.C.1.

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