CONFIDENTIAL
3
particularly its employment as a tool of policy which is recognised, for example, by the attendance of the D.I.S. at Executive Council and other policy making meetings. The purpose is more than to give him an early sight of matters which it may later fall to him to deal with. The important point is the recognition that the way in which a matter may or can be handled publicly is a prime factor in reaching a decision.
17.
It may well be, however, that the very drive and energy exhibited by the first director in establishing his department and extracting recognition for its role created resistances of their own. However unfortunate and improper this reaction may have been it is a factor which cannot be ignored in assessing present attitudes, within the Government, to the department and more importantly to information work.
18.
It is not only that personal resentments linger but there has never been a willing acceptance of the centralised information system among other departments any more than among the press.
19.
Until recently all dealings with the press had to be conducted through the department and the concept is unrealistically enshrined in General Orders. The inevitable result has been to diminish the interest of departments in information work and of course to make some civil servants look rather stupid when instead of answering a simple question they had to refer the caller to the I.S.D. (The poor impression was usually compounded when the enquirer found that the I.S.D. did not know the answer either and had to refer to the department, and probably to the man, who received and declined to answer the original enquiry.)
20.
In so far as this rigid rule was relaxed it was often only to the extent of a department answering easy questions, or whose answers reflected well upon the department themselves, but referring the sticky ones to I.S.D. with the excuse that this was the rule which they were not allowed to break.
21.
From the point of view of the press these antics were unjustifiable and they cumulatively diminished respect for I.S.D.
22.
The only radical departure from this pattern has been the posting of one officer (of too low a grade) to Police Headquarters and the current proposals for a properly constituted Public Relations Unit for the Police Force. With that exception the I.S.D. retains its central control over not just the policy of information and publicity on behalf of Government and its component departments, which is wise, but over the machinery of communication which is unwise and wasteful.
23.
The fact that information services are conducted by a department constructed like other Government departments inevitably affects the readiness of other departments to accept direction from the I.S.D. on matters which, not surprisingly, they believe themselves
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