A Whitehall ‘Showdown’?: Colonial Office—Joint Intelligence Committee Relations in the Mid-1950s

Abstract

This article sheds light on the somewhat hostile relationship between the Colonial Office (CO) and the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) in the mid-1950s. Assessing the reforms recommended following a number of counterinsurgency difficulties, it discusses the role of the CO in the centralised intelligence assessment process. This article argues that relations between the CO and the JIC were underdeveloped and that reforms aimed to allow a greater coordination and a more active JIC input into colonial affairs. However, in doing so, the committee threatened to encroach into CO territory, bringing with it military conceptualisations of the Cold War and an allegedly narrow focus on communist subversion which marginalised more complex colonial problems. This resulted in the threat of a Whitehall ‘showdown’.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Michael Goodman of King's College London and Huw Bennett of the Joint Services Command and Staff College for reading earlier drafts of this work and providing valuable feedback. I also acknowledge, and I am grateful for, the helpful comments of the two external reviewers. I would also like to thank the AHRC for funding the research upon which this article is based.

Notes

Templer, ‘Report on Colonial Security’, 23 April 1955, CAB 21/2925 (all primary sources are found in The National Archives, Kew), 18. His experience as High Commissioner of Malaya and intelligence expertise gained as Director of Military Intelligence in 1946, combined with the authority acquired through his imminent appointment as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, rendered Templer an ideal candidate for the job. See Carver, ‘Templer, Sir Gerald Walter Robert’.

Templer, ‘Report on Colonial Security’, 18.

Paget, Counter-Insurgency Campaigning, 163–64.

For Malaya, see Hack, ‘British Intelligence and Counterinsurgency in the Era of Decolonisation: The Example of Malaya’; Stewart, Smashing Terrorism in the Malayan Emergency; Stewart, B. ‘Winning in Malaya: An Intelligence Success Story’, 267–83; and for Kenya see Randall, ‘Intelligence and Counterinsurgency in Kenya, 1952–56’, 57–83; Newsinger, ‘Minimum Force, British Counterinsurgency and the Mau Mau Rebellion’, 48; and Jeffery, ‘Intelligence and Counterinsurgency Operations’, 125.

Templer, ‘Report on Colonial Security’, 13.

Dimitrakis, ‘British Intelligence and the Cyprus Insurgency, 1955–1959’, 376.

Mawby, ‘The Clandestine Defence of Empire’, 105–30.

Popplewell, ‘“Lacking Intelligence”’, 348.

‘Colonial Intelligence and Security’, 23 March 1955, JIC(55)28, CAB 158/20.

‘JIC Minutes’, 20 Jan. 1955, JIC(55)7th Meeting, CAB 159/20.

In the mid-1950s, ‘consumers’ refers primarily to the Chiefs of Staff, to whom the JIC reported. However, relevant reports were also occasionally forwarded to the Foreign Office, Colonial Office and the Commonwealth Relations Office. Although this was done at the civil servant level as opposed to the ministerial level.

‘History of the Joint Intelligence Organisation’, 29 Nov. 1957, JIC(57)123, CAB 158/30.

Templer, ‘Report on Colonial Security’, 20.

For examples, see ‘Communist Influence in the Far East’, 17 Dec. 1948, JIC(48)113, CAB 158/5; ‘Communist Influence in the Far East’, 29 April 1949, JIC(49)33, CAB 158/6; ‘The Chinese Communist Threat in the Far East and South-East Asia on the 15 Feb. 1950’, 15 Feb. 1950, JIC(50)1/4, CAB 158/9; and ‘Effects of Communist Successes in China’, 6 Jan. 1949, JIC(48)133, CAB 158/5.

Murphy, ‘Creating a Commonwealth Intelligence Culture: The View from Central Africa, 1945–65’, 136.

Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 452, 456. For more detailed information on the role of MI5 in colonial territories, see Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 443–62.

See ‘JIC Minutes’, 12 Jan. 1956, JIC(56)5th Meeting, CAB 159/22; ‘JIC Minutes’, 15 Feb. 1956, JIC(56)17th Meeting, CAB 159/22; ‘JIC Minutes’, 26 April 1956, JIC(56)29th Meeting, CAB 159/23.

Herman, Intelligence Services in the Information Age,112.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Minutes’, 11 July 1955, GEN.485/4th Meeting, CAB 130/108.

‘Note from Bevin to Attlee’, autumn 1948, quoted in Templer, G. (1955) Report on Colonial Security, 19; and Heinlein, British Government Policy and Decolonisation 1945–1963, 106.

‘JIC Minutes’, JIC(55)93rd Meeting, 1 Dec. 1955, CAB 159/21; and ‘Charter for the Joint Intelligence Committee’, 16 Nov. 1955, JIC(55)74, CAB 158/22.

Templer, ‘Report on Colonial Security’, 19.

‘JIC Minutes’, 3 Nov. 1955, JIC(55)88th Meeting, CAB 159/21; and ‘JIC Minutes’, 24 Nov. 1955, JIC(55)92nd Meeting, CAB 159/21.

‘Colonial Intelligence and Security’, 23 March 1955, JIC(55)28, CAB 158/20.

Although a year after the reforms, the CO continued to resist adopting the recommendations.

‘Note from Barton to Watson’, 1 Aug. 1956, CO 1035/24.

‘The Situation which might arise in the Middle East at the Conclusion of the Suez Canal Conference’, 25 Aug. 1956, JIC(56)93, CAB 158/25. For reasons beyond the scope of this article, its conclusions on Cyprus were, however, woefully inaccurate.

For example, compare intelligence in ‘Weekly Review of Current Intelligence’, 27 Sep. 1956, CAB 179/1 to that in ‘Telegram from the Governor to Secretary of State for the Colonies’, 22 Sep. 1956, FO 371/12390.

For an excellent discussion of this, see Holland, Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus, 1954–59.

‘Note from Watson to Carstairs’, 11 May 1956, CO 1035/1.

This was the Cabinet committee to which Templer reported. The Committee was created in January 1955 and was initially chaired by Lord Swinton, before being replaced by the Lord Chancellor Viscount Kilmuir. The Committee was dissolved in 1958 having implemented all but one of Templer's recommendations. It consisted of the Colonial Secretary, the Minister of Defence, the Secretary of State for War, the Secretary of State for the Air, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and the Financial Secretary of the Treasury and was tasked with reviewing ‘the existing organisation of Armed Forces, Police and Security Services in Colonial Territories’. See ‘Letter from Eden to Lord Chancellor’, 5 June 1955, PREM 11/2247. The committee's minutes can be found in CAB 130/108.

‘Note from Carstairs to Lloyd’, 26 April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Note from Watson to Carstairs’, 25 April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Note from Carstairs to Lloyd’, 26 April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Note on Colonial Office Representation on the JIS’, 2 Jan. 1956, CO 1035/1.

Ibid.

Ibid.

‘History of the Joint Intelligence Organisation’, 29 Nov. 1957, JIC(57)123, CAB 138/30.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Brief’, April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Note on Colonial Office Representation on the JIS’, 2 Jan. 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Note from Carstairs to Lloyd’, 24 Jan. 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Note from Lloyd to Lennox-Boyd’, 27 April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Minutes’, 19 Dec. 1955, GEN.485/5th Meeting, CAB 130/108.

Herman, Intelligence Services in the Information Age, 116–17.

Ibid., 118.

Ibid., 116–17.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Brief’, April 1956, CO 1035/1.

Ibid.

‘Note from Watson to Carstairs’, 11 May 1956, CO 1035/1.

Heinlein, British Government Policy and Decolonisation, 106.

Templer, ‘Report on Colonial Security’, 20.

‘History of the Joint Intelligence Organisation’, 29 Nov. 1957, JIC(57)123, CAB158/30.

‘Colonial Intelligence and Security’, 23^rd March 1955, JIC(55) 28, CAB 158/20

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Brief’, April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Brief’, April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Letter from Montgomery to Lyttelton’, 27 Dec. 1951, PREM 11/121.

Carruthers, Winning Hearts and Minds, 80.

‘Soviet Interests, Intentions and Capabilities’, 23 July 1948, JIC(48)9, CAB 158/3; ‘Communist Influence in the Far East’, 17 Dec. 1948, JIC(48)113, CAB 158/5; Communist Influence in the Far East', 29 April 1949, JIC(49)33, CAB 158/6; see also Deery, ‘Malaya 1948: Britain's Asian Cold War?’ or for a discussion of a more dynamic relationship between the international and local factors in the Malayan insurgency, see Hack, ‘The Origins of the Asian Cold War: Malaya 1948’, 471–96.

Templer, ‘Report on Colonial Security’, 52.

‘Committee for Security in the Colonies Minutes’, 11 July 1955, GEN.485/4th Meeting, CAB 130/108.

Ibid.

Ibid.

‘Letter from Dean to Brook’, 12 April 1956, CO 1035/17.

‘Meeting to Discuss IRD Material and the Colonies’, 5 March 1956, FO 1110/956.

‘Minutes of Meeting to Discuss IRD Material and the Colonies’, 30 Nov. 1955, FO 1110/845.

Reddaway, G. ‘Communist and the Colonies’, 22 May 1956, FO 1110/957.

Cortazzi, H. ‘Draft note on IRD and the Colonies’, 13 March 1956, FO 110/956.

Comments by Barton on ‘The Survey of Communism in the Colonies for 1955’, 27 Feb. 1956, CO 1035/76.

See, for example, Note by Barton on a report by the Political Intelligence Group entitled ‘Communist Policy 1956-57’, 4 April 1956, CO 1035/17.

Note by Barton on an IRD paper entitled ‘Soviet Penetration of Africa’, 14 Feb. 1956, CO 1035/17.

‘Letter from Cox [CO Information Dept.] to Cortazzi [IRD]’, 23 Dec. 1955, FO 1110/845.

Comments by Barton on ‘The Survey of Communism in the Colonies for 1955’, 27 Feb. 1956, CO 1035/76.

Note by Barton on an IRD paper entitled ‘Soviet Penetration of Africa’, 14 February 1956, CO 1035/17.

For example, see ‘UK Information Office Gold Coast Progress Report’, Jan.–April 1956, FO 1110/957.

‘Note by Barton to Carstairs and Watson’, 16 April 1956, CO 1035/26.

‘Letter from Carstairs to Brook’, 28 April 1956, CO 1035/17.

‘Note from Watson to Carstairs’, 17 April 1956, CO 1035/26.

‘Note from Watson to Carstairs’, 26 April 1956, CO 1035/17.

‘Colonial Office Circular Despatch on Intelligence’, 2 Jan. 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Brief’, April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Minutes’, 27 June 1955, GEN.485/3rd Meeting, CAB 130/108.

See Jeffries, The Colonial Office, 36–37.

‘Committee for Security in the Colonies Minutes’, 11 July 1955, GEN.485/4th Meeting, CAB 130/108.

‘CO Circular Despatch on Intelligence’, 2 Jan. 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Brief’, April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Minutes’, 19 Dec. 1955, GEN.485/5th Meeting, CAB 130/108; and 30 April 1956, GEN.485/6th Meeting, CAB 130/108.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Brief’, April 1956, CO 1035/1.

Lowenthal, Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, 51.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Minutes’, 30 April 1956, GEN.485/6th Meeting, CAB 130/108.

Murphy, ‘Creating a Commonwealth Intelligence Culture: The View from Central Africa, 1945–65’, 143–44. Christopher Andrew has also written on a more flexible interpretation of the Attlee doctrine; see Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 443.

Ibid., 144–45.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Brief’, April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Minutes’, 30 April 1956, GEN.485/6th Meeting, CAB 130/108.

‘Committee on Security in the Colonies Brief’, April 1956, CO 1035/1.

‘JIC Minutes’, 26 Feb. 1957, JIC(57)21st Meeting, CAB 159/26.

Ibid.

‘History of the Joint Intelligence Organisation’, 29 Nov. 1957, JIC(57)123, CAB 158/30.

Hennessy, The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War, 3–4.