This is a memo to the War Cabinet headed “Brevity”. It is a bit depressing how little progress has been made.

‘To do our work, we all have to read a mass of papers. Nearly all of them are far too long. This wastes time, while energy has to be spent in looking for the essential points.

I ask my colleagues and their staff to see to it that their reports are shorter. The aim should be reports which set out the main points in a series of short, crisp paragraphs. If a report relies on detailed analysis of some complicated factors, or on statistics, these should be set out in an appendix.

Often the occasion is best met by submitting not a full-dress report, but an ‘aide-memoire’ consisting of headings only, which can be expanded orally if needed.

Let us have an end of such phrases as these:

• ‘It…