CC:
CONFIDENTIAL
GC Warner Esq CMG, Intelligence Co-ordinator, Cabinet
A G Normand Esq, JIC Secretary
Office
TG Paxman Esq, Deputy Chief of Assessments Staff Assistants: FED, HKD, SAD, SEAD, PUSD and ISD (P) (all FCO)
DHMS:
Bangkok
Bandar Seri Begawan
Jakarta
Kuala Lumpur
Manila
Singapore
Tokyo
Seoul
Peking
New Delhi
Rangoon
Phnom Penh
Wellington
Ottawa
J Ashton Esq, DPA, Hong Kong
ANNEX A
AUSTRALIA AND CANADA: SHARING DIPLOMATIC REPORTING
1.
The Canadian High Commission in Canberra and the Australian High Commission in Ottawa have for many years passed to their host DFAT hard copies of reporting telegrams and letters of likely interest. Relative Canadian strength in francophone Africa and the Middle East is balanced by Australian resources committed in the Asia-Pacific.
2. However, in the age of modern IT, the process of manual copying and distribution was seen as less than ideal. As the two foreign services worked ever more closely (eg colocation) it was decided to move to a system of electronic copying of telegraphic reporting. Telegram originators decide if a text should be copied to the other service's DFAT; if so the appropriate routing indicator is added in the telegram preamble and the text is sent by DFAT Canberra's ComCen direct to DFAT Ottawa's Comcen (or vice versa). The telegrams are then distributed within DFATs and OGDs in the same way as their own service's traffic. Efficient, effective and apparently welcome
to all concerned.
The Canadians have just established a similar arrangement with New Zealand.
3.
CONFIDENTIAL