UK intelligence-gathering operations. Request by the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan,...

UK intelligence-gathering operations.

Request by the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, for a review of British intelligence-gathering activities regarding Russia, following incidents involving American U2 and RB 47 spy planes. The review aimed to establish common principles to be followed by the UK and the USA, particularly with regard to American airbases in the UK, and to distinguish between reconnaissance and espionage.

Includes a summary of a report by the Joint Intelligence Committee on the gathering of intelligence using ships and aircraft and discussion of proposed reconnaissance missions in the Berlin air corridors and Berlin air traffic control zone. There is also consideration of the use of counter-intelligence measures against Soviet trawler-type vessels which were alleged to contain electronic spying equipment, and a paper proposing new rules for the surveillance of Soviet maritime activity.