909 G997 Editorial Note .

اه

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26 Na 3S.L.W

In the spring of 1917 the Foreign Office, in connection with the preparation which they were making for the work of the Peace Conference , established a special section whose duty it should be to provide the British Delegates to the

Peace Conference with information in the most convenient

form --geographical, economic, historical, social , religious and political - respecting the different countries, districts, islands, &c . , with which they might have to deal . In addition , volumes were prepared on certain general subjects, mostly of an historical nature, concerning which it appeared that a special study would be useful.

The historical information was compiled by trained writers on historical subjects, who ( in most cases) gave their services without any remuneration . For the geographical sections valuable assistance was given by the Intelligence

Division (Naval Staff) of the Admiralty ; and for the economic sections, by the War Trade Intelligence Depart

ment , which had been established by the Foreign Office. Of the maps accompanying the series, some were prepared by the above-mentioned department of the Admiralty , but the bulk of them were the work of the Geographical Section of the General Staff (Military Intelligence Division ) of the War Office.

Now that the Conference has nearly completed its task ,

the Foreign Office, in response to numerous enquiries and

requests, has decided to issue the books for public use , believing that they will be useful to students of history,

politics, economics and foreign affairs, to publicists generally and to business men and travellers . It is hardly necessary

to say that some of the subjects dealt with in the series have

not in fact come under discussion at the Peace Conference ; but , as the books treating of them contain valuable

information, it has been thought advisable to include them .

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