ABSTRACT
Four characteristic features of early twentieth century Whitehall were its strong preference for inter-departmental committees over executive or centralised bodies; its instinctive reluctance to embrace specialists and new forms of administration; its determined resistance to establishing either a Defence Ministry or a Minister of Defence with authority over the three Service Departments; and the absence of a recognisable intelligence ‘community’. It was in this unpromising setting that economic intelligence emerged and survived as a core British Government capability.
