l80 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



serious during the active operations of the British reports group for each 

 report, when received, had been routed to the appropriate persons in the 

 NDRC and CMR. However, if this material were to be of any use as a 

 reference hbrary, it was absolutely essential that it be cross-indexed accord- 

 ing to subject matter. In September 1945, therefore, Bush requested the 

 Liaison Office to make plans to index the British material according to 

 subject matter and to start the active indexing as soon as convenient. 



An important part of the closing of OSRD activities was the determina- 

 tion of how the information obtained during the war could be utilized for 

 postwar military and civilian research. Since the OSRD reports in the 

 Liaison Office were a duplicate of those kept as official records, it was 

 decided to use them as a nucleus for a complete document collection. The 

 Director instructed the Liaison Office to complete its files of OSRD re- 

 ports and to take in charge the important collections assembled by certain 

 of the divisions. Associated with this problem was the delivery of declassi- 

 fied documents to a central agency in order that the results might become 

 public knowledge. 



The indexing of the British reports and the assembling of the document 

 collection became the most important activities of the Liaison Office in 1946, 

 although the recall of documents and declassification duties accounted for 

 much of the time of the operating staflE. By June 1946, the divisional docu- 

 ment room collections had been nominally acquired and were in the tem- 

 porary custody of the Navy Department. Later in the year, arrangements 

 were completed to deliver the entire document center to the Joint Research 

 and Development Board. This transfer was completed in order to have 

 documents available to groups in both Services and to serve as a compre- 

 hensive source of technical information for the committees established by 

 the Board. 



Other remaining obligations of the Liaison Office were discharged by 

 the middle of November, 1946, after which the Liaison Office ceased to be 

 active, although the appointment of the Assistant Liaison Officer continued 

 in force until the end of December. 



There is ample evidence that the progress of the war was greatly speeded 

 by the close working relationship established between American and Brit- 

 ish scientists. The exchange of information was valuable, but the best re- 

 sults came in those situations where specialists from one country were in 

 direct, personal contact with those from the other. The success of this in- 

 terchange on a broad basis between Allies commends it as a pattern should 

 any need for it arise in the future. 



