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Custody and Applied Studies memoranda
Two offices agree that the record must survive and disagree about the consequences of circulating a complete procedure.
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- Custody and Applied Studies memorandaPDF · 2 pages · 133 KBOpen PDF
Part of Reference release 01 · 27 September 2026. Source dates, release folios and editorial annotations are distinguished in the reading copy below.
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Reading copy · RA-IR-1961-042-R07 · page 1
From Collections & Custody
To Applied Studies. Re: equipment receipt 43 and distribution sheet 3.
The equipment has been removed from ordinary service. Its two divisions are to remain empty. Staff have been advised that removing the apparatus from a room does not establish that every associated instruction has ceased to be applicable.
Your proposed reference set preserves the sequence of actions as well as the observed result. We ask whether a complete description of that sequence should be treated as ordinary correspondence. There is a distinction between recording an arrangement and placing the arrangement into further service.
We support correction of the attribution to Mrs Vale. We cannot support treating that correction as authorisation to repeat the procedure elsewhere. The negative comparison must accompany every copy.
A discrepancy is preferable to an unassigned consequence.
A. Holt · Collections & Custody · 24 October 1961
Receipt 43 remains open. Equipment removal acknowledged; closure not authorised.
Reading copy · RA-IR-1961-042-R07 · page 2
From Applied Studies
To Collections & Custody. Re: your memorandum CC/61/43.
We agree that the apparatus should remain withdrawn from service. Your memorandum leaves unresolved the dependence upon an internal account that has already preserved an unsupported attribution against a member of staff.
An independent copy provides a means of detecting a further alteration. It also permits the comparison to survive loss or revision of the originating file. We propose circulation of the reviewed selection, including the ordinary desk comparison and the limits of the observation.
The reader is to preserve the relation between the sources. No request to operate the equipment accompanies the reference set. We cannot establish independence by routing another copy to ourselves.
Custody without understanding is deferred exposure.
T. Mercer · Applied Studies · 25 October 1961
Copy C may be retained without acknowledgement of return. See distribution sheet 3.