Catalogue description Commonwealth Relations Office: Western and Middle East Department and successors: Registered Files, Middle East (ME Series)

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Details of DO 174
Reference: DO 174
Title: Commonwealth Relations Office: Western and Middle East Department and successors: Registered Files, Middle East (ME Series)
Description:

This series contains records of the Western and Middle East Department and its successor of the Commonwealth Relations Office concerning Commonwealth interests in the Middle East area.
Date: 1957-1966
Related material:

. For later records concerning Commonwealth relations with the Middle East, see FCO 27

For further records of the Western and Middle East Department relating to western organisations and issues of general concern see DO 182
Separated material:

For earlier records in the ME file series see DO 35
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: ME file series
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Commonwealth Relations Office, United Nations, Western and Middle East Department, 1964-1966

Commonwealth Relations Office, Western and Middle East Department, 1960-1964
Physical description: 29 file(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure
Accumulation dates: 1957-1966
Administrative / biographical background:

In 1954 the remit of the South Asian Department was expanded to include Commonwealth interests in the Middle East, an important issue given rising tensions at that time between Israel and its Arab neighbours, and the strategic Commonwealth interest in the area (particularly the Suez Canal). The name of the Department was changed to the South Asian and Middle East Department.

In 1957 a separate Middle East Department was created. In 1960 the department was reconstituted as the Western and Middle East Department of the Foreign Affairs Division, in 1964 it became the United Nations, Western and Middle East Department of the Western, Constitutional and General Division (from 1965 the General Division) of the Commonwealth Relations Office. On the formation of the Commonwealth Office the department was renamed the Middle East, Western and United Nations Department.

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