29. Letter From the Director of the Foreign Section, Committee on Public Information (Sisson) to the Chief of the Military Intelligence Branch, Department of War General Staff (Churchill)1
The working arrangement between the department of Military Intelligence and the Committee on Public Information on the matter of Propaganda into Enemy Countries is based fundamentally upon the closest cooperation between the operating forces of both organizations.
On both labor and responsibility the line division of activities is of the simplest. The parallel is that of Industrial Manufacture and Distribution.
The Committee on Public Information is equipped to prepare and manufacture the product, utilizing both its own and Army Intelligence sources of material. The mechanical responsibility for their manufacture will be upon the operating forces of the Committee, in France and in Italy—that is, editorial preparation, translation, printing, etc. In this work it will have the advisory aid of the representatives of Military Intelligence.
The responsibility for distribution, both as to mechanical means, and choice of operating field at the fronts will be upon Military Intelligence, that problem being wholly military.
The Inter-Allied Enemy Propaganda editorial board, containing representatives of Great Britain, the United States, France and Italy will have the oversight of the editorial policies, and the American member of the board, James Keeley, will be the active head of the Committee on Public Information’s operating forces, with headquarters at Paris. Professor G.H. Edgell, who will be the head of the Committee’s Italian unit on Enemy Propaganda, will be under the general supervision of Mr. Keeley. Both the French and the Italian units will be supplied with forces of writers, translators and advertising men as needed. Mr. Keeley will be in Paris in time to consult with Captain Blankenhorn [Page 63] and his superiors by the time the Military Intelligence party arrives in Paris.
To summarize, the Committee on Public Information will manufacture the product, utilizing to the full the advisory aid of Military Intelligence in securing useful material. Military Intelligence will distribute the product. The essence of the agreement is the spirit of cooperation on mutual problems.
This letter is going to you in two copies. If it meets your approval will you countersign one copy and return it to the Committee?
Yours very sincerely,
General Director
Foreign Section
APPROVED
Colonel, General Staff Chief,
Military Intelligence Branch
Executive Division2
- Source: National Archives, RG 63, Entry 105, Director’s Office of the Foreign Section, General Correspondence, Box 13, Military Intelligence and CPI Agreements. No classification marking. On July 23, Sisson wrote Creel that Churchill had “received no letter from Irwin or from you” on an agreement between CPI and MIB. He therefore drafted the letter printed here and asked Creel to “countersign both copies” if it “meets with your views.” (Memorandum from Sisson to Creel; National Archives, RG 63, Entry 105, Director’s Office of the Foreign Section, General Correspondence, Box 7, Creel, Geo. June–August 1918)↩
- To the left of Sisson’s and Churchill’s signatures, Creel wrote: “Approved. George Creel.” Because it bears all three signatures, this copy was apparently forwarded to Churchill on July 24 and returned by him on July 30. (Letter from Sisson to Churchill, July 24, and letter from Churchill to Sisson, July 30; both in the National Archives, RG 63, Entry 105, Director’s Office of the Foreign Section, General Correspondence, Box 13, Military Intelligence and CPI Agreements)↩