British Information Services

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The British Information Services (BIS) was the New York based information department of the British Embassy in Washington DC, an overseas post of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London. [1] There was also an office of the BIS in Ottawa (British Information Services (Ottawa))

The BIS aimed 'to answer the questions most frequently asked in the United States about Britain and provide up-to-date government comment on current events where Britain has a role to play'[2]. It appears that its services have now been taken over by the Public Affairs Team of the British Embassy in Washington DC.[3]

History

Ronald Tree was amongst those who staffed BIS in the early 1940s. A 'connection' of the Astors and part of the Cliveden Set, 'He was born and brought up here, Winchester and all... became joint master of the Pytchley Hunt, was elected to parliament in the awakening 1930s and found Ditchley Park to live in'[4]:

Tree is proof that the Astor network (miscalled the Cliveden set) had two quite opposite sides. He and his sort were as actively and resolutely against appeasement as others among their friends, relations and hangers-on were for it. He tells here ... of the birth and growth of the wartime British Information Services in the United States as neutrality shaded into alliance: Tree was midwife -- as he was of other more voluntary transatlantic ventures bringing relief and the co-operation of men with drive and pull.[5]

John Wheeler-Bennet was also at BIS:

The book brings back with startling vividness the political and social flavour of that world of wartime diplomacy and propaganda. With the vividness goes, paradoxically, an equivalent sense of remoteness. How vanished are the years when we stood alone, as well as those when we were at the apex of the grand alliance. Sir John's Anglo-American story begins almost in a Bertie Wooster world -- the New York of the Stork Club and the Ziegfeld Follies and the London of clubland; it persists into a wartime social whirl that can still talk of "cutting" a German diplomat "in public" and of the "kindness" of the Ritz; it ends on the sober note of the atom bomb and Labour's victory in 1945. With great skill Sir John adapts his style to the changing environment. We begin in the columns of the Tatler. We end with the dour prose of Sir John Anderson.
Two main stories dominate the book: first the narrative of Britain's cautious but tireless presentation of its claims to a sympathetic but apprehensive United States from 1939 to 1942; and the second the interweaving of British and American "political warfare" against the Reich which followed on Pearl Harbor. Both are told with vivid character-painting and a wealth of relevant anecdote. In the first narrative Sir John makes a notable contribution to the history still not fully told of the British Information Services in the Untied States. The second theme lends itself less well to narrative and personalisation, but for those who are interested it is just as significant a footnote to history.[6]

The British Information Services office was the British Ministry of Information's administrative offices in Rockefeller Center, New York City. It worked with British Security Coordination, also housed in Rockefeller Center.[7] According to Thomas Mahl, Wheeler-Bennet's role involved working closely with the covert work of BSC:

Although he had technically been employed by the British Information Service - whose head, Sir Gerald Campbell, worked "hand in glove" with Bill Stephenson - in Rockefeller Center in 1941, Wheeler-Bennet had this to say about British Security Co-ordination: "...S.O.E. had established an office in New York under the direction of Bill (later Sir William) Stephenson....I had known many of them from pre-war days.. [and] I had maintained a fairly close contact with them."[8][9][10]

Post 1945

After the war BIS disposed of their film collection, giving them away to collector Kent D. Eastin, then 67, whose firm Blackhawk Films, Inc., was based in Davenport, Iowa,:

In 1946, Eastin acquired 50,000 British Information Service films [of] World War II - for the cost of freight to Davenport.[11]

1970s

On his controversial appointment as ambassador Peter Jay

proposed a 50 per cent staff cut for the New York-based British Information Service - a move that stunned the BIS employees, who grumbled that it stemmed less from his stated desire to trim costs than from an attempt to concentrate control in his own hands. A British Cabinet committee rejects his recommendation, by a vote of 8 to 1.

This was described by Newsweek in 1978 as Jay's 'only setback, so far'[12] Jay was however successful in removing Laurence O'Keeffe as head of the British Information Service in New York.[13] This excited hostility in London from the conservative Party:

Conservative lawmakers Monday accused Britain's ambassador to the United States of trying to turn the government's information service in New York into a propoganda unit for his father-in-law, Prime Minister James Callaghan. A motion entitled "The Truth That is Fit To Print" was introduced in the House of Commons by a group of Tory legislators who say they plan to question Foreign Secretary David Owen about Ambassador Peter Jay's successful efforts to remove Laurence O'Keeffe as head of the British Information Service in New York... The Commons motion "deplores the removal from office of the director of the BIS New York by the prime minister's son-in-law because he O'Keeffe refuses to convert his daily digest of the British press to a pro-government propaganda medium."
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "It is not uncommon in the diplomatic service, for a variety of reasons, for people to leave their posts before completing a full tour.As to the future of the BIS itself we have recently reviewed the level of our information staff in major overseas posts . . . and this review obviously included the BIS in New York."[14]

The row also reached the pages of The Economist:

That a staff establishment of 68 for the British Information Services (BIS) in New York is too big and should be cut is uncontroversial. But a lively, and now public, row continues on by exactly how much. Mr Peter Jay, the British ambassador in Washington, who is responsible for Britain's propaganda effort in the United States, reckons by half. The foreign office inspectors, who came to New York last winter, also favour a reduction of a so far undisclosed size. And the Whitehall think-tank, in a Beeching-type report on the British diplomatic service, thought Britain could get by with a quarter as many information people as it employs overseas.
Naturally enough all this talk has gone down rather badly with those most affected: the staff of the BIS in New York, whose numbers have been thinned to 56 by attrition over the past two years. Only five of them were sent out directly from Britain. The rest were hired locally. Some of the British and Australian citizens among them will lose their right to stay in the United States if they are declared redundant. The foreign office is suspected by them of picking on them in an effort to win a reputation for cold-eyed efficiency without being beastly to any real diplomats.
The head of the BIS in New York, Mr Lawrence O'Keefe, who is the author, under the pen name of Lawrence Halley, of a psychological thriller called "Simultaneous Equations" has, after a clash of wills with Mr Jay been told he will be removed half way through what was expected to be a four-year term. He has told friends he has got the sack.
At the storm centre of his dispute with the ambassador (who has already got rid of his press attache in Washington) is the future of a BIS survey called "Today's British Papers". It carries extracts culled by the BBC overseas service from editorials in the British press and is distributed by mail by the BIS as a service to news editors in the United States. Some of the extracts are critical of British government policies. On June 26th, for example, the survey quoted from an editorial in the Daily Express that asserted the Labour government was contributing to further violence in Rhodesia by refusing to accept the internal political settlement agreed in that country...
Writers of editorials for American papers say they find this service useful. Those spoken to on major dailies - the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News, among them - said a government willing to circulate material critical of itself was more likely to be believed by journalists...
Mr Jay is apparently unconvinced. He thinks the British embassy in Washington and the BIS in New York should concentrate more attention on disseminating what is called by the embassy "primary information material": economic statistics, speeches by British ministers, extracts from official British government reports and so on...
It remains unclear whether Mr Jay merely wants to make economies, and reasonably sees the bulletin as a target, or whether he really believes that the BIS should only be putting out good news for the government - which is not always the same as good news for the British taxpayer.[15]

Blacks Britannica

Before finishing up as director general of BIS O'Keeffe had time to complain about a US TV film about racism in Britain:

British government officials and legislators said Thursday an American-made documentary movie on Britains racial problems presents a "horrific view of racism" in this country. Laurence O'Keeffe, director general of the British Information Services in New York, complained to the WGBH television station in Boston, Mass., that the documentary gives a distorted view of Britain's smoldering racial issue, government spokesmen said.
The 57-minute film, "Blacks Britannica," was commissioned by the WGBH Educational Foundation and made by independent producer David Koff of California. It was broadcast by the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service network Thursday night. Officials here said O'Keeffe, the British government's U.S. information chief, asked WGBH president David Ives for equal time on the non-commercial network to "put other points of view on race relations in Britain." The movie has been clouded in controversy since Koff finished shooting two months ago. The lanky, bearded producer was roasted by British critics at a preview-news conference in London July 11. Several accused him of giving a one-sided view of the plight of Britain's 1.9 million non-whites.
Koff said the movie was his contribution to the struggle against racism and fascism." He said the film "reflects the increasingly militant response within the black community to the continuing attacks upon it, both by organized fascist elements on the streets, and by the state itself." Koff also fought with WGBH over the final version of the movie. PBS at first refused to screen it unless he made some changes. Koff accused WGBH of censorship before the squabble was resolved Wednesday by the refusal of a court to issue a restraining order prohibiting broadcast of the edited program.
In the movie, radical non-whites charge the state is deliberately exploiting and suppressing them. One black in the version previewed in London commented: "There's a conspiracy against the colored population." The movie reflects growing racial tension in Britain, especially among an increasing badly hit by unemployment and swelling hostility from white extremists.[16]

Northern Ireland

BIS was at the forefront of British propaganda activities in relation to the conflict in Northern Ireland. In February 1979 the early manifestations of what became a full fledged propaganda war in the Hunger Strikes of 1980 and 1981 had already begun:

Britain has launched a propaganda campaign, largely aimed at the United States, to counter Northern Ireland's Irish Republican army claims that convicted guerrillas are kept in "stinking hell-holes." Some 340 IRA men in the maze prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, are refusing to wear prison uniforms, do prison work, clean their cells or use lavatories in protest of Britain's March 1, 1976, abolition of the "political prisoner" status for convicted guerrillas. Visiting British legislators have described the Protesters' excrement-fouled cells as "revolting."
The Northern Ireland Office is distributing a four-page document that says the Protesters' plight is self-inflicted and notes that 90 of the guerrillas were convicted of murder or attempted murder and more than 100 for offenses related to explosives... A NIO spokesman said Monday that 10,000 of the documents have been printed "and we're still printing." He said the sheets have been circulated to all British information service bureaus around the world and to newspapers and elected officials in Britain and the United States. The United States is the main target because the protest has aroused sympathy among 15 million Irish-Americans.
Prime Minister James Callaghan's government fears rekindled financial support among Irish-Americans - estimated by British intelligence three years ago at $2 million a year. The flow dwindled sharply last year following appeals by British and Irish Republic Government ministers who said the money was subsidizing death and destruction. The Maze protest led at least three U.S. congressmen to visit northern Ireland to investigate conditions at Maze. One of them, Rep. Mario Biaggi, D-N.Y., heads an ad hoc committee publicizing the protest in the United States. The British refused to allow the congressmen into the maze.[17]

BIS was active writing letter to the elite press to challenges those critical of the British position. In September 1979 a letter by Peter Hall, head of British Information Services, was published in the New York Times disputing Dennis Smith's Sept 13 letter on relationship between Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Catholic community in Northern Ireland.[18] A further letter from P M Nixon of BIS New York was published in November 1980[19] This contained typical distortions promoted by BIS at the time. For example it states that

the European Court of Human Rights... has never found Britain guilty of torture and has never investigated nor issued a report on the Maze. However, the European Commission on Human Rights did issue a decision last June rejecting as inadmissible complaints by four protesting prisoners about their treatment and status.[20]

In fact the European Commission of Human Rights did unanimously uphold the Irish Government contention that the use of the 'Five Techniques' of coercive interrogation did constitute torture. This was downgraded to 'cruel, inhuman and degrading' treatment by the European Court of Human Rights after further representations from the British government and four of the judges involved wrote dissenting judgements disagreeing with the verdict.[21] The letter goes on to state that:

Nor has Amnesty International alleged torture in the Maze. On the contrary, its latest report states (page 145): Amnesty International does not support the demand for a special status for any prisoner. P. M. NIXON British Information Services New York, Nov. 11, 1980[22]

It was true that Amnesty had not alleged systematic torture in the Maze/Long Kesh, but they has at the time alleged systematic mistreatment of and violence against suspects in the interrogation centres run by the RUC.[23]

BIS, being housed in the British Consulate in Manhattan's East Side, saw prolonged protests during the hunger strikes. According to press reports campaigners 'for months have picketed outside the consulate and staged mock funerals for each of the eight prisoners who starved themselves to death in Maze prison in Belfast.'[24] After the death of Bobby Sands BIS were quoted:

Elspeth Flynn, a specialist on Irish affairs at the British Information Service in New York, said she had no idea how much money was going to Northern Ireland from U.S. supporters, but said, "I would have thought it was a lot higher than $200,000 a year." She said that from the British standpoint, the big fear was the pro-IRA "propaganda," which she believes much of the money raised by Noraid and other groups is spent on. "Of course we deplore the smuggling of guns, and it has gone on. But I don't think that's where most of the money goes. It goes to propaganda," Mrs. Flynn said.[25]

After the visit of Prince Charles to New York in the aftermath of the death of Bobby Sands BIS was implicated in attempting to manage the statements of the Mayor Ed Koch:

Dubbing the English government a little crazy, Mayor Edward Koch said Friday a British representative ordered his press office to retract statements Koch made about Prince Charles' position on Northern Ireland. 'They must live in a different world... in the United States we have something you call freedom of the press. We don't seek to suppress them,' Koch said. 'They're a little crazy. Not the English people, the English government,' he said. Koch said that on Wednesday, upon returning to City Hall from lunch with the prince, his press secretary had received a call from a representative of the British government, later identified as Patrick Nixon of the British Information Service.'You have to call the papers and the radio stations and ask them not to use your statements,' Koch quoted Nixon as saying.
Koch had told reporters after the private lunch that the prince was 'very sympathetic' to the plight of Catholics in Northern Ireland and was hopeful the differences could be settled peacefully. At the same time, Koch said Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, not the British monarchy, should be held responsible for the policy.[26]

Selling Royalty

BIS was at the forefront of attempting to sell the royals on their triops to the US as well as promoting the royal wedding of Diana Spencer and Charles Windsor in the summer of 1981:

You can wash in soap imprinted with the pictures of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. You can dress in a wedding T-shirt and slip an imitation royal-engagement ring on your finger. You can eat off a commemorative plate and take a swig from a mug featuring the ear of his royal highness for a handle... Both British-made and American-made wedding souvenirs are on the market. The British are exporting an estimated $156 million worth of memorabilia, ranging from Wedgewood commemorative plates to pencil cases, according to Judy Hyde at British Information Services in New York. One thing the British aren't making is T-shirts with pictures of Charles and Diana. The British government judges that use of the royal faces "indiscreet," Ms. Hyde explains. So the British-made T-shirt shows "an enthusiastic crowd of wedding sightseers."[27]

People

Publications

Notes

  1. ↑ Britain-info.org Website found on web.archive.orgaccessed 23-Feb-2008
  2. ↑ About BSI, Britain-info.org Website found on web.archive.org of 7 december 1998, Accessed 23-Feb-2008
  3. ↑ Britaininusa.com British Embassy in the USA
  4. ↑ Transatlantic midwife; WHEN THE MOON WAS HIGH: Memories of Peace and War, 1897-1942. By Ronald Tree. Macmillan. 208 pages. £4.95.The Economist July 26, 1975, SECTION: BOOKS; Pg. 112
  5. ↑ Transatlantic midwife; WHEN THE MOON WAS HIGH: Memories of Peace and War, 1897-1942. By Ronald Tree. Macmillan. 208 pages. £4.95.The Economist July 26, 1975, SECTION: BOOKS; Pg. 112
  6. ↑ Transatlantic; SPECIAL RELATIONSHIPS: America in Peace and WarBy John Wheeler-Bennett. Macmillan. 220 pages. £5.95. The Economist, November 22, 1975, SECTION: BOOKS; Pg. 111
  7. ↑ Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception, Brassey's 1999, p191.
  8. ↑ Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception, Brassey's 1999, p.29.
  9. ↑ Cull,Nicholas John, "The British Campaign Against American 'Neutrality,' Publicity and Propaganda." Ph.D Dissertation, University of Leeds, 1991. p. 448.
  10. ↑ J. Wheeler-Bennett, Special Relationship. London: Macmillan, 1975. p. 155.
  11. ↑ MARY ALICE KELLOGG with CHRIS J. HARPER in Chicago 'Roll 'Em', Newsweek, March 22, 1976, UNITED STATES EDITION, SECTION: ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. 44
  12. ↑ EILEEN KEERDOJA with JANE WHITMORE in Washington and ALLAN J. MAYER in London 'Ambassador Jay', Newsweek May 15, 1978, UNITED STATES EDITION, SECTION: UPDATE; Pg. 18
  13. ↑ The Associated Press July 10, 1978, AM cycle, DATELINE: LONDON
  14. ↑ The Associated Press July 10, 1978, AM cycle, DATELINE: LONDON
  15. ↑ Diplomacy; Comment - sacred or expensive? The Economist, July 15, 1978 SECTION: BRITAIN; Pg. 26, DATELINE: New York
  16. ↑ The Associated Press August 11, 1978, AM cycle, BYLINE: By ED BLANCHE, Associated Press Writer, DATELINE: LONDON
  17. ↑ ED BLANCHE, Associated Press Writer The Associated Press February 5, 1979, AM cycle, DATELINE: LONDON
  18. ↑ PETER HALL, NEW YORK TIMES, September 19, 1979, Wednesday, SECTION: Page 24, Column 4
  19. ↑ P M Nixon 'ULSTER PRISONS' MANY VISITORS', The New York Times, November 15, 1980, Saturday, Late City Final Edition SECTION: Section 1; Page 22, Column 4; Editorial Desk
  20. ↑ P M Nixon 'ULSTER PRISONS' MANY VISITORS', The New York Times, November 15, 1980, Saturday, Late City Final Edition SECTION: Section 1; Page 22, Column 4; Editorial Desk
  21. ↑ R. J. Spjut, 'Torture Under the European Convention on Human Rights' The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 73, No. 2 (Apr., 1979), pp. 267-272
  22. ↑ P M Nixon 'ULSTER PRISONS' MANY VISITORS', The New York Times, November 15, 1980, Saturday, Late City Final Edition SECTION: Section 1; Page 22, Column 4; Editorial Desk
  23. ↑ Peter Taylor, Beating the Terrorists?: Interrogation in Omagh, Gough and Castlereagh (Penguin Special) October 1980
  24. ↑ ELLAN CATES United Press International, August 4, 1981, Tuesday, PM cycle, SECTION: Domestic News, DATELINE: NEW YORK
  25. ↑ LEE MITGANG, Associated Press Writer 'American Support For IRA May Get Boost From Sands' Death The Associated Press, May 6, 1981, Wednesday, AM cycle, SECTION: Domestic News, DATELINE: NEW YORK
  26. ↑ MOLLY CARRUTH 'Koch says English government is "a little crazy"'United Press International, June 19, 1981, Friday, AM cycle, SECTION: Domestic News, DATELINE: NEW YORK
  27. ↑ JANE SEE WHITE, Associated Press Writer,'Royalty Buffs Buying Souvenirs, from Soap to Shirts' The Associated Press, July 27, 1981, Monday, PM cycle, SECTION: Domestic News
  28. ↑ 'John D. Miller, British Journalist', The Washington Post, May 23, 1977, Monday, Final Edition, SECTION: Metro; C4
  29. ↑ Frank Mitchell, 75, Retired Chief Of British Embassy Press Office The Washington Post, July 4, 1978, Tuesday, Final Edition SECTION: Metro; C4
  30. ↑ 'British diplomat named in child porn case' United Press International, March 18, 1981, Wednesday, PM cycle, SECTION: International, DATELINE: LONDON
  31. ↑ FRED FERRETTI 'PRINCE CHARLES PAYS A QUICK VISIT TO CITY', The New York Times, June 18, 1981, Thursday, Late City Final Edition, SECTION: Section A; Page 1, Column 5; Metropolitan Desk
  32. ↑ LEE MITGANG, Associated Press Writer 'American Support For IRA May Get Boost From Sands' Death The Associated Press, May 6, 1981, Wednesday, AM cycle, SECTION: Domestic News, DATELINE: NEW YORK
  33. ↑ JANE SEE WHITE, Associated Press Writer'Royalty Buffs Buying Souvenirs, from Soap to Shirts' The Associated Press, July 27, 1981, Monday, PM cycle, SECTION: Domestic News
  34. ↑ 'Deny Report Prince Charles Will Buy N.Y. Condo', The Associated Press, August 3, 1981, Monday, AM cycle SECTION: Domestic News, DATELINE: NEW YORK
  35. ↑ Hermes Database July 4, 2000 Foreign And Commonwealth Office Fco Daily Bulletin - Tuesday 4 July 2000
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