ARMY BUREAU OF CURRENT AFFAIRS. War … Issued fortnightly … Not to be published. No place or printer, May 1942 - Deptember 1944.
Issues 17 to 77 (missing: 20, 50; 33 not bound in and soiled) privately cord-bound through filing holes inbetween Celotex hard board, front cover with labels; a few maps and illustrations, some covers a little dusty, otherwise good, typed ownership label of Sgt. B. J. Edmond of the Hapshire Regiment on front cover.
One of the largest collections of these restricted wartime publications to have come up on the market. Only the BL holds an almost complete run ('wanting no. 28'). 'The staff of the Army Bureau of Current Affairs [ABCA] at present comprises one Director, one junior civil assistant (female), four temporary male clerks, Grade III, all of whom are civilians, and one lieut.-colonel - A.A.G., four majors - D.A.A.G. and D.A.D.W., one captain, G.S.O.III. The Bureau forms part of the establishment of the Directorate of Welfare and Education, and appointments to the staff are made by the War Office in the normal way. The Director of the Army Bureau of Current Affairs is a civilian, and he was appointed on 8th July, 1942, for an indefinite period. The salary is £1,200 per annum, and the appointment requires full time service and is terminable at one month's notice. So far as outside activities are concerned, he is governed by the normal rules for the Civil Service. The authorised estimate for the expenditure of the Bureau in the present financial year is £63,000. Within this amount and subject to the normal financial control the Director has authority to spend specific sums on the different approved activities of the Bureau. The Director of the Army Bureau of Current Affairs does not incur expenditure in relation to the work of the Director of Army Education' (Sir J. Grigg in Hansard, October 20, 1942).
ABCA published as well a less restricted series, easier to find as well, titled Current Affairs. These periodicals were aimed at army recruits, to inform about the war and instigate curiosity about current affairs and instigate discussions about the war and the readers role in it.
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