Catalogue description Foreign Office: Cultural Relations Department: Correspondence and Papers

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Details of FO 924
Reference: FO 924
Title: Foreign Office: Cultural Relations Department: Correspondence and Papers
Description:

This series contains correspondence and papers of the Cultural Relations Department, relating mainly to the activities of the British Council and relations with UNESCO.
Date: 1944-1966
Arrangement:

From the beginning of 1950 a revised filing system was adopted by the Foreign Office. This system was based on:

  • i) an initial letter (or letters) indicating the Department concerned
  • ii) a file number
  • iii) a further number indicating the particular paper in the file

Departmental index letters:

  • CR Cultural Relations
  • CR General
  • CRA Administration
  • CRE Examinations
  • CRL Cultural Activities
Related material:

For records of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission see HR

See also the Board of Education and successors, Division within ED

For later records see FCO 13

For records of the British Council Section see FO 370

For minutes and papers of the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education (1942-1945) see BW 74
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Foreign Office, Cultural Relations Department, 1944-1968
Physical description: 1741 file(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 1970 Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Accruals: Series is accruing
Unpublished finding aids:

Papers up to 1951 are indexed in FO 409

Administrative / biographical background:

A British Council Section, established as part of the Library in 1941, became an enlarged and separate Cultural Relations Department in 1944. It dealt with all matters of educational or cultural interest, the control of the policy and expenditure of the British Council and liaison between the Council and the Foreign Office. From 1954, when the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission began offering scholarships to American students at British universities, the department handled liaison between the Commission and the Foreign Office, and also attended the Commission's meetings.

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