Colonies General Register of 'Unregistered' Correspondence

The volumes in this series record details of incoming correspondence which, because of its routine or unimportant nature, was not registered by the Colonial Office's central registry in its registers of daily correspondence, but which was summarily dealt with either by immediate reply, or by dispatch to the appropriate branch of the Colonial Office or relevant government department.

The first three volumes relate to correspondence on a wide variety of subjects which is not to be found entered in any of the daily or branch correspondence registers. The fourth volume, spanning the years 1909 to 1912, records information concerning incoming correspondence relating to personnel of the tropical African service.

CO 652/1-3 are divided into alphabetical sections recording correspondents' names, date, colony, subject, and when and how disposed of. Each volume includes a memorandum of instructions for dealing with a particular type of correspondence and particular named correspondents, such as an instruction not to register letters from named individuals described as 'lunatic'.

None of the original correspondence entered has survived.

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