Department of Correspondence, Envoy Office

The Office of Correspondence, Envoy Department (Shinasthana: 尚署客曹典案司, dang′-kta-den-′anh-sai; abbr. DOCEO) is the main government agency overseeing intelligence and national security matters in Themiclesia. It falls within the ministerial portfolio of the Secretary of State for Envoys, Themiclesia's foreign minister. While the DOCEO is in charge of intelligence both foreign and domestic and shares information with law enforcement agencies, it is not a law enforcement agency itself, and its officials have no additional power to monitor or arrest individuals or commandeer property; this was clarified by statute in 1983.

DOCEO grew from a minor bureau responsible for opening and summarizing letters sent home by Themiclesia's diplomats and their contacts into an active manager of intelligence-gathering by 1850, though this intelligence was more often of a commercial than political nature in foreign markets and shared mainly with the Board of Trade for the advantage of Themiclesian industry. It is thought this expansion of activity mirrored the that of the far-reaching Foreign Office of Anglia. In the course of the Pan-Septentrion War, the Viceregal departments of state affairs (which had similar function but oriented domestically) were reformed as branch offices of DOCEO.

It should be noted that Themiclesia's National Security Agency is part of the Exchequer Department and in charge of financial securities.

Organization

• Head of Department (Under-Secretary)
  • Assistant Secretary
    • Acting Assistant Secretary
      • Executive Senior Commissioner for Sorting
        • Sorting Commissioners
      • Executive Senior Commissioner for Envoys
      • Executive Senior Commissioner for the Exchequer and Viceregal Departments
      • Executive Senior Commissioner for Technology
      • Executive Senior Commissioner for Instruction
    • Acting Assistant Secretary
      • Executive Senior Commissioner for Finance
      • Executive Senior Commissioner for Legal Affairs
    • Accountant
    • Attorney

Criticisms

Secrecy

As it is part of a "palace department", the DOCEO has been subject to more stringent confidentiality than other government offices. The Official Secrets Act of 1934 created the modern classification of documents based on content rather than recipient, as formerly all documents bound for the palace (and any government department in it and their officials) were confidential by default and not published unless explicitly ordered by the government; this is because such documents were nominally addressed to the Crown. However, most foreign secretaries were very liberal with their authority to classify, resulting in classification nearly always by default, unchanged from before.

A classified document is not necessary completely off-limits to the public, only that its access is subject to permission and that reproduction is restricted. If, additionally, a document is classified, its existence is recorded, its whereabouts known, its safekeeping the assigned responsibility of a given person, and the conditions for its declassification provided. Documents are declassified by time or by condition. If a document is declassified or was not classified, then in principle it is available to the public after the government has taken action upon it.

Incompetence

During the early stages of the Pan-Septentrion War, the DOCEO seems to have played a very limited role. As it had few agents, it sent circulars to the armed forces, police, and government departments requesting information of various kinds; this was sorted into relevance areas such as enemy movements, supply situation, infrastructure, local needs, and so on. After sorting, they were either held for further study or reported to the Foreign Secretary, who would then present this information to the cabinet at discretion. If it is presented, it is merely made available to the Prime Minister and other Government ministers; it is not necessarily or typically discussed by the Cabinet. If it was indeed discussed, the matter usually related in some way to the Foreign Secretary's other objectives.

Yet soon into the war, this form of intelligence processing was cast in doubt. As appearing from his memoirs, Major General Nak complained in 1934 that the "quantity of intelligence" circulated was impossibly small, with only one or two intelligence reports of modest length a month. Nak reported that, as every battalion commander was required to report, there should be a consistent stream of information into the Foreign Office, where it should be monitored as developments occur and duly reported to the Foreign Secretary. Yet Nak had difficulty persuading the War Secretary to make the case in Cabinet that it was not circulating sufficient information for much of 1934, as the Foreign Secretary Tam Krem said much of DOCEO's intelligence in unprocessed form was "hearsay, rarely evident or informative" and not a basis for Government action.

In 1935, the War Secretary sent an official to the Foreign Office for an informal conference regarding the situation, but DOCEO held the same opinion the Foreign Secretary previously expressed.

See also

• Themiclesia