Catalogue description Records of American and Atlantic Departments of the Commonwealth Relations Office

There were no divisions devoted entirely to the United Kingdom's American and Atlantic Commonwealth interests at any time during the existence of the Commonwealth Relations Office. Originally, relations with Canada were handled by Division A (the former Dominions Office). After the first re-organisation of the Office into a subject divisional structure, relations with Canada were handled either by the various general departments or by the Western and United Nations Department and successors. The general departments also handled questions relating to Commonwealth interests in the region as a whole.

In August 1962, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago gained their independence within the Commonwealth, and a new West Indies and General Division was established in the Office as a result. This consisted of two new departments, the West Indies Department and the Nationality and General Department, which worked closely with the West Indies Department, given the importance of emigration from the West Indies to the United Kingdom at the time.

The West Indies and General Division was disbanded in 1964, and responsibility for Commonwealth relations with the Caribbean was passed to a new Atlantic Department in the Aid Division, which also had responsibility for Canadian matters and for Commonwealth relations with the United States of America, as well as for general Commonwealth interests in the Atlantic and Antarctica. In 1965 the Aid Division was abolished and the Atlantic Department became part of a new Asia and Atlantic Division, which arrangement remained in place until the creation of the Commonwealth Office in 1966.

The Atlantic Department continued under the Commonwealth Office until the creation of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in October 1967, when its functions were split between the North American and Caribbean Department and the Western European Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.