Collection search - DO 35. Dominions Office and Commonwealth Relations Office: Original Correspondence [textual record (microform)] [Great Britain]

Although the entire class was microfilmed for the period 1926 to 1946, only a small proportion of the original files have survived, most having been destroyed by British law. For the period commencing 1947, files relating to Canada were selected for microfilming. Files relating to the rest of the Commonwealth for this latter period were not obtained., The first 590 microfilm reels were prepared for the National Library of Australia between the years 1948 and 1958. Negative copies of these reels were acquired from the Library by the National Archives of Canada in 1984. Additional files or pieces were microfilmed for the National Archives in the years 1994, 1996 and 1997.

Until 1930, the records followed Colonial Office arrangement practices with files bound annually according to provenance (despatches, offices, institutions, individuals). The despatches were organized on a geographical basis. Later, files were no longer bound. Files on a particular Dominion were not kept together but were dispersed throughout the class.

Phillips, Margaret, compiler. Australian Joint Copying Project, Handbook Part 10, Dominions Office. Class, Piece and File List. National Library of Australia, 1991.

Microfilm of originals held in the Public Record Office, London, England.

Further accruals are possible since the National Archives maintains a list of files which could be copied.