[David Ransome]

Hi,

Regrettably a lot of paper documentation has been destroyed after being microfilmed as, at the time, it was considered too costly for the storage. Even as recently as 1999 I was personally aware of certain Civil Servants authorising the destruction of valuable historical documentation (some WWI and more WWII, from a variety of operations areas), often without any attempt at microfilming, including PoW cards. One lady in particular had the attitude that this sort of stuff was for Government / Civil Service use only and, when not needed officially, should be destroyed as it would be of no use to anyone. Of course, once destroyed, the documentation can not be found or passed on to foreign governments!

I managed to get some stuff saved then (including a list of PoWs for one camp which was enclosed in a cover made from an old Shell fuel can!) and I would hope that this sort of mindless and selfish destruction has now ceased.

David