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The popular name for a British government paper which, because of its bulk, was given a cover of stronger quality than the inside pages; the colour of this cover happened to be blue. Blue Books, typically long official reports covering matters of domestic as well as foreign policy, were published by the government and formally presented to Parliament - and thus by one means or another to the public at large. They were introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the chief architect of the new system being George Canning (1770-1827), the brilliant and driven Tory foreign secretary who, in his last period, was also leader of the House of Commons and briefly prime minister.
The Diplomatic Blue Books, which reached foreign governments as well as influential groups within Britain, were, of course, sometimes employed by foreign secretaries as instruments of propaganda. Documents such as exchanges of telegrams were presented selectively and often edited to be consistent with current policy. Bismarck disapproved of the British practice of publishing diplomatic correspondence, observing (rather carelessly) that if he were to follow suit his work would be doubled, since for every confidential despatch"> he wrote he would need to write another for publication. An excellent guide to the nineteenth-century Blue Books, which contain reports on the British Diplomatic Service, was written by Harold Temperley and Lillian M. Penson (published in 1938, and reprinted in 1966). The term ‘Blue Book’ fell into disuse during the twentieth century. |
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