Memorandum from Charles Murray to Maurice Moynihan (Dublin)
'War Book'
(S15475) (Copy)

With the receipt of the War Book material of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, all the Departmental material for the War Book has been received. You will recall that the Government approved the preparation of such material on the 8th May, 1953.¹

2. All the War Book material has been circulated, confidentially, to each Department and a number of Departments have submitted observations on the material of other Departments which, in turn, have been circulated. Some Departments have brought their original material up to date.
3. It was originally proposed (see letters dated 9th February² and 31st March 1955)³ that a meeting of the Inter-departmental Emergency Preparation Committee would, if necessary, be called to secure agreement on any outstanding points. These points include those matters of common concern to all Departments, as enumerated in enclosures A to E of your circular letter dated 31st March, 1955,⁴ viz.:
   1. Matters involving inter-departmental consultation or co-ordination or in which action by one Department may affect other departments.
   2. Safeguarding of essential Departmental and other Records.
   3. Statutory Orders under the contemplated National Security Act, or under the general National Security Order to be made by the Government under that Act.
   4. Reserve Stocks.
   5. General matters.

   The ‘general matters’ include the scope, format, etc., of the War Book.

4. At a Government meeting held on the 23rd November, 1956⁵ the view was taken that the Inter-Departmental Emergency Preparation Committee cannot now be regarded as having any active existence and that its revival would require a positive decision to that end. The procedure contemplated in paragraph 3 cannot now be followed unless the Government decided to re-establish the Committee.
5. At a meeting held on the 6th July, 1956,⁶ the Government decided, in relation to Emergency Preparations,

   ‘that, as a first step, the Minister for Defence should establish a Working Party with terms of reference on the following lines:-

   Proceeding on the assumption that attacks with nuclear weapons would take place on

   1. British cities, particularly those on the west coast,
   2. Belfast or
   3. Dublin itself,

   to furnish a report to the Minister for Defence as to the problems (excluding those of a purely military character) that would arise from such events, to indicate in broad outline the measures that might be taken (and their order of priority) to mitigate the disastrous consequences, and to suggest how far existing organizations could be adapted to implement such measures or what new organizations would need to be brought into being.’

   I understand from Mr. Clarke,⁷ Assistant Secretary, Department of Defence, that the Working Party on Civil Defence has been meeting practically every week since it was established but that, in view of the complexity of the subject and the difficulty of obtaining authoritative up-to-date information, it is not possible to state when the Working Party will be in a position to report. Obviously the report of the Working Party and the decisions taken thereon will have an important bearing on the form and contents of the War Book.

6. The question arises of what action should be taken now in relation to the War Book. Were it not for the delay (almost four years) which has already taken place, there might be something to be said for deferring further action until the report of the Working Party on Civil Defence is available. It is suggested, however, that this course might involve an indefinite and possibly extended delay, and that further delay in relation to the War Book should be avoided if possible. While Civil Defence is a vital part of the War Book, there are many other important aspects of the War Book. Furthermore, the War Book will, in any event, have to be brought up to date regularly and any consequential amendments arising from the report of the Working Party on Civil Defence can be incorporated in the War Book as part of such regular revision.
7. As we will, in any event, have to write to the former members of the Inter-departmental Emergency Preparation Committee to inform them why the procedure mentioned in paragraph 3 above cannot now be followed, it is suggested that we might, at the same time, invite their comments as to the best procedure to be adopted in editing the War Book, etc. Possibly the matter might then be discussed at an informal meeting of Heads of Departments – presumably this would not conflict with the view expressed by the Government (paragraph 4). At this informal meeting the question of the staff required to do the job, and where the staff is to come from, might be discussed.
8. I should mention that the Department of Industry and Commerce have expressed the opinion (see enclosure to their minute dated 18th January, 1956, on S.15475/2)⁸ that:

   ‘It is not considered that a comprehensive war book covering all Departments of State is either necessary or practicable. When the plans of the Department of Industry and Commerce were being prepared a comprehensive book such as suggested was not envisaged; on the contrary it was assumed that each Department’s plans should be comprehensive in the sense that the impact of the functions of one Department on another would be taken into full account and that the ‘war book’ did not entail inclusion of the plans of all Departments in one volume for all stages or in separate volumes for each stage. It is suggested that each Department should be required to retain sufficient copies of its own plans, kept up-to-date by periodic revision, to meet its own needs. The Department of the Taoiseach would be kept advised of the position in each Department and matters arising out of the impact of one Department’s plans on another could be settled in direct consultation between the two Departments concerned. The manner in which the present procedure is developing is creating unmanageable volumes of paper, with no indication that finality is in sight.’

   These views have been brought to the notice of other Departments.