ABSTRACT
The closure of the Soviet embassy from May 1954 until early in 1959 was a mixed blessing for ASIO. On the one hand the monitoring of the Soviet officials ceased, thereby promising unemployment for ASIO agents. But on the other hand ASIO was able to expand its activities elsewhere, thus ensuring con tinuing employment for its workers. This included the vetting of military trainees then being commissioned as army officers to handle the ever-increasing numbers conscripted under the compulsory military training programme. This scheme marked Australia’s domestic response to the burgeoning Cold War. Colonel Spry had already decided that vetting procedures for military personnel should concentrate on the four following categories: persons having access to top secret information, persons employed on intelligence duties, cipher staff and persons employed on educational duties.1
