Interdepartmental Commission of Enquiry on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and...

This series contains some of the unpublished written and oral evidence taken by the Scarbrough Commission

Copies of the Report of the Commission can be found at IOR/V/26/950/1 and IOR/L/PJ/7/12306. Further papers on the Commission can be found in the Public & Judicial Annual Files at IOR/L/PJ/7/14145, in the Secret Despatches from the Standing Committee on UK Representation in India at IOR/Q/25/2/17, and in the Papers of the East India Association at Mss Eur F147/59.

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The Scarbrough Commission was appointed by Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on 15 December 1944, to examine the facilities offered by universities and other educational institutions in Great Britain for the study of Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African languages and culture, to consider what advantages were being taken of those facilities and to formulate recommendations for their improvement. The Commission consisted of the Earl of Scarbrough (Chairman), Sir Theodore Adams, C.G. Caines, Sir Arthur Dawe, H.A. De Montmorency, Dr. B. Ifor Evans, The Lord Farrer, Sir Godfrey T. Harvard, Sir Walter Moberly, P.R. Morris, Sir John T. Pratt, W.R. Richardson, B.W. Swithinbank, Sir George Tomlinson and Sir Gilbert Wiles. The Secretary to the Commission was R.T.D. Ledward of the Foreign Office. The work of the Commission was divided into six geographical areas comprising the Near and Middle East, India and Ceylon, the Far East, South-East Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe, and Africa, with separate sub-committees appointed to consider the problems for the study in Great Britain of the languages and culture of each one. The sub-committees reported back to the main Commission which took their recommendations into consideration when making it's report. The Commission's Report was signed on 16 April 1946 and published in 1947.