56.
official stationery and an official title can hardly be regarded as involving an assertion by Mr Smith of the right to control the correspondence, either personally or in his capacity as Official Secretary, by then to Sir Zelman. Any implication to that effect is immediately contradicted by Mr Smith's express statements that the correspondence was "personal and confidential" to Sir John and the Monarch and that the papers were to remain closed for 60 years in accordance with "Sir John Kerr's instructions".
157 Relying on later correspondence between Sir John and Mr Smith, the appellant also contended that Sir John ran his office at Government House by distinguishing between his "personal papers", which were kept in his Administrative Secretary's office and were later sent to him in London after his tenure as Governor-General, and "official papers", which were "passed out" to the Official Secretary's office, as "must have" occurred with the correspondence in issue.
158 That contention is not persuasive. The evidence relied upon is a letter of 15 January 1981 from Mr Smith to Sir John, outlining how "letters and telegrams" sent to Sir John "supporting or criticising [his] actions of 11 November 1975" were dealt with. It explains that the letters and telegrams to which Sir John replied personally were kept in the Administrative Secretary's office and later sent to London with other personal papers, while the remaining letters and telegrams were passed out to the Official Secretary's office, acknowledged where possible, and placed in boxes in a store-room in out-buildings at Government House to go to the Archives as soon as possible. Contrary to the appellant's contention, it does not indicate that every document ever placed in Mr Smith's office – even correspondence repeatedly described as "personal" or "private" and "confidential" – was, ipso facto, an official record of the official establishment of the Governor-General. Rather, it only confirms that Sir John exercised personal control over correspondence to which he attended personally, like that with the Monarch, notwithstanding that such correspondence might be relevant to his performance of the viceregal office.
159 This conclusion is supported by a letter of 15 December 1983 from the Acting Director-General of the Australian Archives to Sir John as to arrangements to be made to bring back archival material with Sir John from England to Australia. The clearly understood distinction between personal records of the Governor-General and records of the official establishment of the Governor-General is apparent in the following paragraph of that letter:
"In my view, it is important that such arrangements be made for its storage, preservation and accessibility as are appropriate to both the official and personal components. Of course, it will be necessary for any such arrangements to take account of the provisions of Archives legislation which was passed in October. Briefly, the position will be that all private and personal material including direct and personal correspondence with
