Introductory Note to Volume II v 
identified by the names of the states or areas to which the 
constituent documents refer. The fonds are grouped in alpha- 
betical order, the individual documents within each being 
arranged chronologically and for the most part bound into 
consecutively numbered volumes. 
The primary series, Correspondence politique , consists 
of the correspondence of diplomatic agents abroad with the 
ministry in France, and of the correspondence of the ministry 
with foreign agents accredited to France. All types of docu- 
ments are included in this section—drafts and originals of 
instructions to and reports from French representatives, as 
well as drafts of communications to the representatives of 
other states and originals of the letters of these representa- 
tives to the French ministry. In this series are also numerous 
and varied enclosures that accompanied the principal documents. 
It is important to note that supplementary to this large 
group of papers is a significant collection known as Correspon - 
dance politique , Supplement . Arranged under the same rubrics 
as the principal series, the Supplement contains documents 
properly a part of that series that came to the Foreign Office 
after the papers with which they belong chronologically had 
been collected into bound volumes. Among them are papers 
given or sold to the government by the families of deceased 
diplomatic agents, documents purchased at various times by the 
government in the open market, and obsolete files transferred 
to the ministry from French embassies, legations, and residen- 
cies abroad. The Supplement contains many duplicates of docu- 
ments in the main series, yet no historical investigator can 
afford to neglect it, since among such duplicate materials are 
frequently found unique copies of important papers. 
The second major division of the archives, Memoires et 
Documents , contains a wide variety of memorials and accompanying 
papers prepared by or submitted to the ministry and referring 
directly or indirectly to the foreign relations of the state. 
These documents are classified according to the same system as 
is the Correspondance politique : subdivisions are identified 
by the names of states, while individual documents within each 
classification are arranged chronologically in consecutively 
numbered volumes. One important variation arises from the 
fact that among the Memoires et Documents is a large series 
of volumes filed under the designation France , which fonds 
does not appear in the Correspondance politique . 
The third and last section of the archives is the Corre - 
spondance des consuls, which includes instructions to and 
reports from French consular agents in various parts of the 
world. As is the case with the Correspondance politique , the 
consular correspondence contains a large amount of subsidiary 
material originally enclosed with the major documents of the 
series. The series is classified by names of states, with a 
subclassification by names of specific consular jurisdictions 
within each state. The final arrangement of documents for 
each jurisdiction is chronological. 
These are the archives proper as made accessible to 
investigators under such regulations as may be imposed by the 
authorities in charge. There exists at the Foreign Office an 
additional small collection of materials generally not open 
