Paris Peace Conf. 184/62

The Chief of the Section of Territorial, Economic and Political Intelligence ( Mezes ) to the Secretary of the Commission to Negotiate Peace ( Grew )

Subject: Organization of a division entitled the Division of Current Intelligence Summaries.

By mutual agreement and in accordance with a conference between Mr. Grew, Dr. Mezes, Mr. Bullitt, and Mr. Bowman, it is proposed to have in the Section of Territorial, Economic, and Political Intelligence a division entitled the Division of Current Intelligence Summaries, and to place Mr. William C. Bullitt in charge.

The plan requires for its operation a central office in charge of Mr. Bullitt where there would be received all current intelligence material, whether reports and memoranda from field agents, cablegrams from embassies, or clippings from the press. The material will be in charge of assistants selected for their ability to discard material as well as select it, so that there may be gathered each day as small an amount as possible of information of critical value to the Commission. The central office would route this material to the different specialists, and would secure the reactions of the specialists to the information obtained each day. There would thus be concentrated [Page 209] each twenty-four hours the entire information that had been received, and the reactions of all specialists and intelligence officers to it. It would be from such material that Mr. Bullitt would prepare the epitomes and comments for the Commissioners which are now a part of his daily program.

The epitomes would be gathered in a special room, which would be open only to the Commissioners and to the specialists, and to designated officers and assistants of the Division of Current Intelligence Summaries. Those items of greatest importance would be starred on the list of summaries, and the material on which the starred items was based would be found in the special room. All other material would be kept in classified form in the central office of the Division, where it would be available should it be desired by any Commissioner or specialist.

According to the proposed plan the field agents in touch with the Commission would be under the direction of the administrative officers of the Section of Territorial, Economic, and Political Intelligence. Their work in the field would be directed by this Section and their reports received by its central office.

The details of the operation of the central office and the relations between it and the specialists is to be the subject of a conference between Mr. Bullitt and Mr. Bowman, and to later conferences with the specialists, in case this plan is approved by the Commissioners.

S. E. Mezes