158 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



the development of weapons. Accordingly, agreements were reached under 

 which operational information, particularly that which would show the 

 effectiveness of weapons, could be distributed to groups working on similar 

 weapons in this country. 



Since the Liaison Office staff had knowledge of all the work going on in 

 the NDRC and CMR, it was given the task of obtaining operational infor- 

 mation in the form of reports from the U. S. Army and Navy for OSRD. 

 A special group, designated as Group A, was established within the Liaison 

 Office for this purpose in February 1943. Because of the stringent controls 

 required, the group was segregated within the Liaison Office and operated 

 as a separate unit. In the case of the more highly classified documents, the 

 recipient was required to sign a statement that he had received and read 

 the document, and each individual whom he permitted access to the docu- 

 ments was likewise required to record the fact that he had obtained the 

 information contained in the report. 



During most of the operation of Group A, a staff member paid daily 

 visits to the Military Intelligence Reports Center. There he was permitted 

 to look over documents being marked for circulation and to note what 

 documents he wished for the OSRD. These were duplicated and forwarded 

 to the Liaison OflBce. Each report was scrutinized in Group A and then 

 routed to the Division Chief or other individual having a direct need for 

 the report. In addition to the intelligence reports. Group A distributed to 

 the interested divisions of NDRC such reports of an operational character 

 as were sent to the Administrative Office by the Services. 



A very important activity which grew out of Group A was the participa- 

 tion of OSRD in the formation and operation of the Joint Electronics Intelli- 

 gence Agency (JEIA). This was a joint undertaking participated in by the 

 Army, the Navy, and OSRD. Each group furnished to JEIA operational 

 and technical reports on electronics which it had received through its own 

 channels. Each day the reports which had been received the previous day 

 were scrutinized by representatives of each of the Services participating in 

 the plan. The material was then duplicated and distributed in accordance 

 with requests. As a result of this plan, all British reports dealing with elec- 

 tronics or closely allied subjects were distributed directly and promptly to 

 the working groups in Army, Navy, and OSRD regardless of the channel 

 by which they had been received. The average time required for this dis- 

 tribution was cut from two months to two days. 



Even with the strict security standard which Group A maintained, in its 

 period of greatest activity it received 1200 reports a month and distributed 

 3000, including duplicates of reports which required relatively wide distri- 

 bution. With the close of the war with Japan, OSRD had little need for 

 further operational information, and so most of the reports distribution was 

 dropped and termination of the Group A activity was inaugurated, 



