[matter omitted]

I need not say that I feel sure that this report will not be shown to anybody except the Minister. I have been quite uneasy about reports, since the habit of circulating them in the Dept. and to our people abroad was begun. Quite irrelevantly, could we not now stop the circulation of stupid news, about the return to Headquarters on leave etc. of Representatives abroad. The limit is reached when it comes to describing the stages of Mr. X’s peregrinations from his post to Dublin. Surely, the Civil Servant should be largely anonymous. To put it differently, could we not now take up the hypothesis where we dropped it, that the Dept. of External Affairs, like all the others, has a sense of humour.