FOREIGN OFFICE, in Great Britain, that department of the executive which is concerned with foreign affairs. The head of the Foreign Office is termed principal secretary of State for foreign affairs, and his office dates from 1782. From the Revolu tion until that time there had been only two secretaries of State: the Southern, administering Home, Irish, American, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Barbary States, Italian, Swiss and Turkish affairs, while the Northern looked after the rest of Europe. In 1782, under Rockingham's administration, the Southern depart ment became the Home Office, keeping the charge of Irish affairs and such colonial business as remained after the secession of the United States, and the Northern department became the Foreign Office, with Charles James Fox as first secretary of State.
The office was then in Cleveland row : the duke of Leeds trans ferred it in 1786 to the Whitehall Cockpit. In Grenville's time (1791), when the secretary of State was assisted by a staff of two under-secretaries and I clerks, it came to small, dark and inconvenient premises in Whitehall, and stayed there until its final move to its present buildings in 1868. The greatest secretaries of State of the 19th century were Canning (1807 09, 1822-27) , Castlereagh (1812-22), Palmerston 1846-51) and Salisbury (1878-8o, 1885-86 and 1887-92) (qq.v.). The most important permanent officials have been Joseph Planta (1787-1847), who controlled the procedure of the office in its early years; Lord Hammond permanent under-secretary 5854-73) and Lord Sanderson (1841-1923, per manent under-secretary 1894-1906), who ruled in middle and late Victorian times respectively; Sir Eyre Crowe (1864-1925, per manent under-secretary 1920), to whom the present organization of the office is greatly due; and Sir Edward Hertslet (1824-1902, librarian 1857-96), who originated the great treaty collections, etc., still associated with his name, and the Foreign Office List.
A qualifying entrance examination for Foreign Office clerks was instituted by Lord Clarendon in 1856, and they are now in almost all respects on an equality with other members of the civil service (q.v.), though there are some special provisions as regards lan guages in the entrance examination taken by them. In 1881 lower (subsequently second) division clerks were introduced, and there is at the present time, in addition to the diplomatic establishment, a non-diplomatic staff to deal with establishment, accounts and other questions of a non-diplomatic character. Women typists were first introduced in the early '9os and had by 1906 taken over all copying work. As a result of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, 1912-14, the Foreign Office and diplomatic staffs (see DIPLOMACY) were made interchangeable, and the "property qualification" (i.e., the necessity of possessing some private means) for the latter was abolished.
The secretary for foreign affairs is the official agent of the Crown in all communications between Great Britain and foreign powers ; his intercourse is carried on either through the repre sentatives of foreign States in Great Britain or through repre sentatives of Great Britain abroad. He negotiates all treaties with foreign States, protects British subjects residing abroad, and de mands satisfaction for any injuries they may sustain at the hands of foreigners; he, or some person appointed by him with cabinet approval, also represents Great Britain on the Council of the League of Nations.
He is assisted by a permanent under-secretary of State, a par liamentary under-secretary, a deputy under-secretary and two assistant under-secretaries : all of these, except the second, are per manent civil servants.
The Foreign Office at present (5928) is made up of the following departments : (a) Territorial. American (North and South America, Liberia, liquor traffic, slave trade) ; Central (Central Europe, Italy, Balkans, execution of the peace treaties) ; Eastern (Turkey, Persia, Hejaz) ; Egyptian (Egypt, Sudan, Abyssinia) ; Far Eastern (China, Japan, Siam, opium) ; Northern (Russia, Afghanistan, Poland, Scandinavia, Finland, Baltic States) ; West ern (France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, League of Nations, arms traffic). (b) General. Treaty (inter national law, foreign marriages, nationality, diplomatic privilege, ceremonial) ; Consular (under the administrative control of the Department of Overseas Trade, for which see below; dealing with the consular service [see CONSULS] throughout the world) ; News (press, wireless news service) ; Dominions Information (inter imperial relations as affecting foreign countries) ; Communications (telegrams, king's messengers) ; Passport office and passport control department ; Chief Clerk's department (estimates, finance, establishment, fabric) ; Library (books, custody of correspon dence, preparation of memoranda, facilities and information, legalization of documents) ; registry, a sub-department of the Library (arrangement, indexing, despatch and custody of current correspondence). There is a legal adviser, whose post was created in 5878, now with three assistants, and (temporarily) an historical adviser.
British trade abroad has always been the joint concern of the Foreign Office and the Board of Trade (q.v.), and until 1917 there was a Commercial department of the Foreign Office to act as the channel between British diplomatists and consuls abroad and the Board of Trade at home. In that year the Department of Over seas Trade was formed, with its own permanent head and parlia mentary under-secretary, and it now occupies a quasi-independent position between the two older offices, having especially close rela tions with the Consular department of the Foreign Office, and dealing also with British trade in the dominions and colonies.
The World War naturally caused a vast expansion in the work of the Foreign Office. Its most important manifestations were the Contraband Department (the Foreign Office side of the Min istry of Blockade), with its subsidiary licensing and statistical branches, and an organization for the promotion and control of British propaganda, until this activity was handed over to a Ministry of Information created ad hoc.
Despatches, telegrams, letters, etc., are registered on receipt,' and the registry clerks attach to them previous correspondence on the same subject, or papers affording precedents or analogies. They are then sent to the appropriate department for minuting. Minor matters are settled within the departments, while those of greater importance pass on upwards to the under-secretaries, and to the secretary of State himself : the latter, in the weightiest matters of all, will consult his colleagues of the cabinet, and keep the King informed and if necessary obtain His Majesty's approval.
The salaries of officials of the Foreign Office, and the diplomatic, commercial, diplomatic and consular services will be found in the Foreign Office List, published annually by Messrs. Harrison and Sons, Ltd.
The numbers employed in the Foreign Office and connected departments were :—