1 - The Black Vault

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That
caveat aside, I do understand and sympathise with the MOD's position on the
subject ofUFOs. My ongoing research into the social history of the subject at the PRO
and the British Library has demonstrated how dealing with inquiries about UFOs has
become an on-going public relations problem for your staff dating back to the early
50s. On the subject of''UFOs" themselves, I completely concur with the MOD's
conclusions that the vast majority - if not all - observations can be explained as
misindentifications of natural phenomena, balloons, planets and stars etc. However, the
ongoing 'will to believe' in the existence of 'exotic' UFOs intruding into UK airspace
on the part ofUFOlogists and the attitude of the media, which you note observers
often seek out to promote their alleged experiences, has meant the UFO myth has
continued to develop and will not go away.
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It is precisely these social and psychological contexts - particularly periods of Press
interest and Parliamentary Questions - which I am examining as part of my on-going
research based at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language,
University of Sheffield. The paperwork generated by the various MOD departments
which have dealt with the UFO issue - both in terms of public and internal policy -
since 1950 are a crucial source of information for my project, hence my request for
access to documents which currently fall within the 30 year rule.
I am grateful that you are taking the trouble to retrieve and review the UFO-related
files to which I have requested access, and look forward to your progress report at the
end of September.
In the meantime, as new information has come to light I am now in a position to be
more specific in terms of my request for access to files addressed to the MOD Record
Officer on 27 July and 7 August. I am now able to precisely specifY the name and
what I suspect to be the current location of the file/s to which I referred in my earlier
requests to the Record Officer. The document I am seeking is known as DSI/JTIC
Report No.7 on Unidentified Flying Objects. It was created in 1952 by the 'Flying
Saucer Working Party' set up in August 1950 at the request of Sir Henry Tizard.
DSUJTIC minutes I have viewed at the Public Record Office (DEFE 4174-76)
demonstrate that the Working Party consisted of representatives from DSTI, ADNI
(Tech), MI 10 and ADI (Tech). Report No 7 is referred to in a minute of? October
1952 and is listed on a register ofDSUJTIC reports in DEFE 41176 (see enclosed,
Attachment A). However, the document is missing from the DSUJTIC reports and
papers which are contained within DEFE 152-54. This is not because the file has been
destroyed, but rather because it was "retrieved" (moved to another file?) by a member
of the DSTI branch, DIS5, in December 1967. In evidence for this assertion, I attach a
copy (enclosed, Attachment B) of an internal memo, copied from PRO file Air
2/18117, where JE Dickison ofDI55 states that: "we [DI55] have recovered all but
two of the Metropole (ie Intelligence) files on UFOsfor the period 1951-2 ... we
consider that the report DSIIJTIC Report No. 7 Unidentified Flying Objects covers
the situation as a whole for such activity at that time."
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It is accepted that all files and papers relating to UFOs have been permanently
--'>preserved by the MOD from 1967 at the request of the Secretary of the State for
Defence. Attachment B demonstrates that DSIIJTIC Report No 7 existed in 1967, and
should therefore still exist today if that policy has been followed. I would suggest a