Editing Chatham House (section)

====WWII Foreign Press and Research Service====

At the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] the institute was decentralised for security reasons, with many of the staff moving to [[Balliol College, Oxford]] from Chatham House's main buildings in [[St James's Square]]. There, the Foreign Press and Research Service of the Institute worked closely with the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]] to provide intelligence for and to work closely with the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]] dedicating their research to the war effort under the Chairmanship of [[Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor|Waldorf Astor]],<ref name="Carrington_114" />

The formal remit of Chatham House for the FPRS at Balliol was:<br />
1. To review the press overseas.<br />
2. To “produce at the request of the Foreign Office, and the Service and other Departments, memoranda giving the historical and political background on any given situation on which information is desired”.<br />
3. “To provide information on special points desired" (in regards to each country).<ref name="Carrington_63_64">{{harvp|Carrington|2004|pp=63–64}}</ref>  It provided various reports on foreign press, historical and political background of the enemy and various other topics.

Many eminent historians served on the FPRS under [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] as its director and with [[Lionel Curtis]] (represented the Chairman) at Oxford until 1941 when [[Ivison Macadam]] took over from him. There were four deputy directors, [[Alfred Zimmern]], [[George Clark (historian)|George N. Clark]], [[Herbert James Paton|Herbert J. Patton]] and [[Charles Webster (historian)|Charles K. Webster]], and a number of experts in nineteen national divisions.<ref>Experts in their fields working at Chatham House's WWII Foreign Press and Research Service included [[James Leslie Brierly|J. L. Brierly]] working on reform of international law; A. J. B. Fisher on economic conditions for reconstruction of Europe;  [[Benedict Humphrey Sumner|Benedict H. Sumner]] on the USSR;  [[Charles Webster (historian)|Charles K. Webster]] on the United States; [[Alfred Zimmern]] on the British Commonwealth and  Empire;  [[H. A. R.  Gibb]] on the Arab world;  [[Robin Humphreys|R. A. Humphreys]] on Latin America;  [[George Clark (historian)|George N. Clark]] on the Low Countries, Scandinavia and Italy;  Marshall on Germany and Czechoslovakia;  W. Stewart on France; [[William John Rose|William J. Rose]] on Poland;  [[Carlile Aylmer Macartney|Carlile A. Macartney]] on Hungary;  [[David Mitrany]] on Romania;  [[Andrew Ryan (diplomat)|Sir Andrew Ryan]] on Bulgaria and Albania;  Mrs. Thompson on Greece;  [[Rosalind Murray]] on the Vatican, among others.</ref>

It was moved to the Foreign Office 1943–46.<ref>Chatham House and British Foreign Policy, 1919-1945, Edited by Andrea Bosco & Cornelia Nevari, Lothian Foundation Press, 1994, p146.</ref>