ABSTRACT
Some indication of the effectiveness of the war-time courses can be obtained from the reports and comments sent to School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) by senior intelligence officers in the field concerning the interrogators’ and translators’ attitude to their work and competence in the language. In September 1944 Major-General W. J. Cawthorn, head of British army intelligence in India, visited SOAS during a trip to England. Cawthorn met Professor Edwards, Daniels and Piggott of the Department of the Far East at SOAS. The Department was pleased that the courses had been favourably assessed but added that specific criticisms of the training would be valuable as pointing to deficiencies in the curricula which they might be able to remedy. The confidence in its teaching methods displayed by the Department in this correspondence can be attributed to the favourable reports on ex-students which had begun to arrive towards the end of 1944.
