Metadata: Government Code and Cypher School: Diplomatic Section and predecessors: Decrypts of Intercepted Diplomatic Communications (BJ Series)
Collection
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- The National Archives (UK)
- Holding institution (official language):
- The National Archives (UK)
- Postal address:
- KewRichmondLondonGreater LondonUnited KingdomTW9 4DU
- Phone number:
- Telephone: 020 8876 3444
- Web address:
- http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
- Reference number:
- HW 12
- Title:
- Government Code and Cypher School: Diplomatic Section and predecessors: Decrypts of Intercepted Diplomatic Communications (BJ Series)
- Title (official language):
- Government Code and Cypher School: Diplomatic Section and predecessors: Decrypts of Intercepted Diplomatic Communications (BJ Series)
- Date(s):
- 1919/1945
- Language:
- English
- Extent:
- 338 volume(s)
- Scope and content:
-
This series contains decrypted foreign diplomatic telegrams and reports by the Government Code and Cypher School. The origin of the series name 'BJ Reports' is that the reports were circulated by the Foreign Office (the main recipient) in blue file jackets. The records referred to as JUMBO reports are based on overseas interception (and often decryption), which could be received by telegraph or by courier from other authorities such as British forces in the Middle East, India and Hong Kong, which practised signals intelligence for their own purposes. They forwarded material of high interest to London.
The material up to the end of 1925 covers such subjects as the Russian Civil War and subsequent Soviet negotiations for recognition; post-war settlements in Central and Eastern Europe; the occupation of Turkey and the Greco-Turkish war; Great Power ambitions in the Middle East; Japanese ambitions in China and the Russian Far East; French intransigence on the questions of German reparations and European security; the rise to power of Mussolini and his increasingly aggressive political tactics to establish Italy as a Great Power.
1926 to 1929 covers Mussolini's growth in power and influence in the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean and Italian aspirations in North and East Africa and Arabia; civil war in China and her attempts to throw off the control of foreign powers; civil war in Afghanistan and Russian penetration; the Kellogg Non-Aggression Pact and British, American and Japanese diplomatic consultations in preparation for the International Conference on Reduction of Naval Forces and related decrypts issued during the period of the conference from January to April 1930.
The years 1939-1945 are concerned almost exclusively with the conduct of the war.BJ volumes for June to December 1938 are missing.
- Archival history:
- Between 1918 and 1939, diplomatic intelligence was the main product of GC&CS, hence its transfer from Admiralty to Foreign Office control on 1922. The Diplomatic Section moved to Bletchley Park with the rest of the School in August 1939. Lack of space at the Park meant that the Section was soon relocated to Elmers School, but in early 1942 it returned to Berkeley Street, London to facilitate contact with the Foreign Office. Before the war, BJ reports were issued in London, and the exact means used to provide the intelligence to ministers and officials overseas , is now not known. During the war, arrangements were made for the secure dissemination of intelligence both at home and abroad (see for example HW 36, HW 37 and HW 39).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Originally established after the First World War as the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) and was known under that name until 1946 when renamed as GCHQ when it was located at Bletchley Park, where it was responsible for breaking the German Enigma codes.Between 1918 and 1939, diplomatic intelligence was the main product of GC&CS, hence its transfer from Admiralty to Foreign Office control on 1922. The Diplomatic Section moved to Bletchley Park with the rest of the School in August 1939. Lack of space at the Park meant that the Section was soon relocated to Elmers School, but in early 1942 it returned to Berkeley Street, London to facilitate contact with the Foreign Office. Before the war, BJ reports were issued in London, and the exact means used to provide the intelligence to ministers and officials overseas , is now not known. During the war, arrangements were made for the secure dissemination of intelligence both at home and abroad (see for example HW 36, HW 37 and HW 39).
- Access points: locations:
- Middle East
- Subject terms:
- World War II
- Access, restrictions:
- UK public records, open for research unless otherwise stated in The National Archives' catalogue
- Finding aids:
-
More information is available in The National Archives' catalogue.
Research guidance is available on The National Archives' website.
- Yerusha Network member:
- AIM25
