52.
"The Secretary of State will be glad to receive from the Governor periodically, for the information of Her Majesty The Queen, reports relating to affairs in the State. If these reports take the form of official despatches, they should be marked 'Confidential', and should not be included in the ordinary numbered series of despatches, since the intention is that they should afford to the Governor an opportunity of expressing his own personal views and not those of his Ministers. It may, however, be found convenient that they should not take the form of despatches, but of personal letters marked 'Personal and Confidential'. Observations by the Governor of a general nature, from his own personal enquiries or experiences, and impressions gained during travel in the State, are most helpful to Her Majesty. The Governor might wish from time to time to comment on the state of the political situation, on public feeling in the State, as indicated in the Press or in other ways, and on economic affairs, (eg unemployment and commerce)."
146 Consistently with that practice, a document dated 16 December 1974 outlining the contents and public availability of the papers of Sir John's predecessor, Sir Paul Hasluck, provides as follows:
"This collection of papers contains copies of documents which have not been placed on official files. Consequently they are additional to material that may be found on the files of Government House, the Prime Minister's Office and Commonwealth Government Departments.
This collection is arranged in five groups.
Group 1.
Copies of despatches written by the Governor-General for the information of Her Majesty the Queen and the acknowledgements made of them by the Private Secretary to the Queen. The originals are now the property of the Queen and the permission of Her Majesty or Her successor has to be obtained before the documents can become public."
147 Likewise, on 22 September 1976, Sir John wrote, on a personal and confidential basis, to the Queen's Private Secretary, Sir Martin Charteris:
"I recently had occasion to remake my will. This resulted in my realising that something should be done about my papers. These include, amongst other things, documents relevant to my Governor-Generalship, especially the crisis. They include a lot of diary notes, records of conversations and draft chapters of possible future books. Also included, of course, is my copy of the correspondence between us.
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