The Waldegrave Initiative and secret service archives: New materials and new policies
Louise Atherton, Top Secret: An Interim Guide to Recent Releases of Intelligence Records at the Public Record Office (London: PRO Publications, 1993). Pp.32. £3.25. ISBN 1 87362073. Louise Atherton, SOE Operations in the Far East: An Introductory Guide to the Newly Released Records of the Special Operations Executive in the Public Record Office (London: PRO Publications, 1993). Pp.59. £3.25. ISBN 1 873162081. Louise Atherton, SOE Operations in Scandinavia: A Guide to the Newly Released Records in the Public Record Office (London: PRO Publications, 1994). Pp.34. £3.25. ISBN 1 873162154. FCO Historical Branch, Changes in British and Russian Records Policy: Occasional Papers No.7 (London: Historical Branch, LRD, 1993). Pp.42. FCO Historical Branch, FCO Records: Policy Practice and Posterity, 1782–1993 (London: Historical Branch, LRD, Second Edition, 1993). Pp.17.
Epilogue: The Need to Know
As a concession to the albeit minor active role played by Persian exiles and emigres in Nazi attempts to influence regional politics, Chapter 5 dealt briefly with the wartime activities of a handful of Persians. However, the central focus of this book and its prequel2 has not been on them. It has instead been limited to how German covert initiatives and Allied security measures played out in the PAIFORCE theatre, not how they were directly or indirectly affected by the attitudes and behaviour of Persian officialdom and the Persian public-at-large, often referred to as ‘the bazaar’ or ‘the street’. Such popular indigenous opinon might be of sociopolitical significance perhaps, but it had little bearing on the work of the Allied secret services. Without apology therefore, this book (as well as its pre-quel) has not focussed on the wartime Persian polity, nor even on the interface between it and the Allies. They protected Persia from German invasion, subversion, and sabotage, not for Persia’s sake but for that of the Allied cause and the survival of the British Empire. The focus has therefore been primarily on a secret war waged on Persian soil between German spies and saboteurs on the one hand and Allied spycatchers on the other. It has been on Persia as a theatre of operations and on the combatants who occupied that theatre: mostly young European, American, Indian, and Soviet Russian men who found themselves operating in a harsh and unforgiving environment — in summer heat so unbearable that even the flies died3 — far from their homes and often against daunting odds.4
Avocado Flowering 1
The avocado (Persea americana Mill.) has increased in importance over the years in many countries around the world. The United States, Mexico and Brazil lead in world commercial production, while Israel, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Spain, Cyprus, Canary Islands, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela, Greece, and the Caribbean area are actively increasing commercial production (B.O. Bergh, personal communication; Gustafson 1976). The history of the avocado has been detailed by Gustafson (1973, 1975,1976) and others (Bergh 1975b, Knight 1980; Popenoe 1924; Ruehle 1958; Schroeder 1958; Williams 1976). Several reviews have been published on various aspects of the avocado, including its botany (Knight 1980; Purseglove 1968; Williams 1976), breeding (Bergh 1975b), horticulture (Hodgson 1930b; Ruehle 1958; Ryerson et al. 1924), cultivars (Campbell and Malo 1976), and pollination (Gustafson and Bergh 1966). A recent collection of papers discussing the horticultural aspects of avocado production is found in Sauls et al. (1976).