ES London this telegram must be c1osely paraphrased be- Dated December 27, 1941 fore being communicated to anyone. (B) Rec'd. 10:45 p.m. Secretary of State, Washington. 6234, December 27, 7 a.m. (SECTION FIVE) Staff of the Executive: special conference. The executive is served by a small full time staff of civil servants headed as chief officer by the recently retired head of an important Depart- ment of State. It is their duty to keep the Execu- tive informed of all questions arising for consider- ation and to issue the necessary memoranda, agenda, minutes and reports. (these are kept as brief as possible consistently with clarity and are formulated in confidence each copy being serially numbered and registered to the recipient). They arrange special conferences to consider questions which are not of sufficient importance to bring before the Executive or on which preliminary work is necessary and run committees appointed by the Executive to work out the detailed application of agreed policies or to take charge of questions requiring continuous and detailed oversight. It is the function of this staff to follow up the |