MEMO ROUTING 1w.P~ flJ =~~·l'::'l;~.-:h-PPROVAL5, DISAPPROVALS, I CUNCUKi<t:JvCES. OR SIMILAR ACTIONS 

1 KAME OR TITLE INITIALS CIRCUU.TE 

Captain Roltwick, USN - ' ORGANIZATION AND LOCATION DATE COORDINATION 

Special Assistant 

2 FILE 

- INFORMATION 

3 NECESSARY ACTION 

4 NOTE AND RETURN 

4 SEE ME 

SIGNATURE 

REMARKS 

Would be most appreciative of such connnents 

as are deemed appropriate on the various items in 

this trip report by Prof. 'Wilks. 

5/~S~l - #"° h tJd FROM NAME OR TITLE 

~ DATE 

William F. Friedman 4 Jan 55 ORGANIZATION AND LOCATION TEL£PHONE 

Special Assistant 6o493 . 

DD FORM 

1FEB50 5 RoplacesDAAGOForm805,1Apr48,ondAFHQ lG-411487_,. <>l'o 

Form 12, 10 Nov ~7, whloh may Ile uaed.. 

eclassified and a roved for release b NSA on 07-22-2014 ursuant to E.O. 1352 
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18 December 1954 

MEMORANDUM FOR MR. WILLIAM F. FRIE!l>'IAN 

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY 

NSA SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD 

SUBJECT: Report on Visit to GCHQ, September 9-ll, 1954 

1. I arrived in London about 10:00 a.m. on September 8 and went 

directly to Colonel Barton s. Pulling's office.to discuss arrangements 

which he bad ma.de for my proposed visit to GCHQ September 9-11. He 

suggested right away that it might be just as well to go to Cheltenli..am 

early the morning of September 9 as the afternoon or evening of September 8. I accepted the suggestion and during the hour before lunch 

and with the assistance of Colonel Pulling's secretary I ma.de hotel 

reservations to stay in London the nights of September 8 and 11. She 

also handled my hotel reservations at Cheltenham, provided me with 

information concerning schedules of train services between London and 

Cheltt•nham, e.nd ma.de a plane reservation for me to Paris on September 

12 to catch a VIA.TS plane leaving Paris on the 12th for Washington. 

Colonel Pullfaig and I went out to lunch at one of the Clubs near 

Grosvenor Square. 

2. After lunch I talked with Colonel Pulling for more than two 

hours about the purpose or my visit, the U.S. military and civilian 

personnel stationed at GCHQ, the extent of interchange between NSA and 

GCHQ r~rsonnel, the organization of GCHQ, and other similar matters. 

I found him to be very alert, energetic and enthusiastic throughout 

the :more than four hours· of time I spent with him that ~· 

3. I left London in the morning of September 9 and arrived in 

Cheltenham shortly after noon where I was met by one of Lt. Colonel 

Zeller's assistants who took me straight to Colonel Zeller's office. 

I spent the entire afternoon with Lt. Colonel Zeller and Dr. Rutledge 

discussing the organization of GCHQ. They went into considerable 

detail. concerning the re-organization of GCHQ which had been announced 

on 9 August, referring me to his memorandum of 11 August on the subject. 

In brjefing me on the organization or GCHQ Lt. Colonel Zeller took up 

the various divisions and top people in a complete~-thorough manner 

one-by-one, indicating how the existing set-up would be changed under 

the re-organization. · Lt. Colonel Zeller also gave me an excellent 

briefing on the U.S. nlilitary and civilian personnel stationed at GCHQ. . . 

- · ~. With this background. of information in hand concerning GCHQ 

I explained in some detail that I was particularly interested in talking 

to the appropriate GCHQ personnel on the following subjects: 

(a) The organization or T/A effort and how closely it was .integr~ted with C/A effort • 

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(b) Problems of personnel recruitment and selection. 

(c) Problems of quantification and graphical presentation of 

intelligence concerninej ~ 

(d) Mathematical and statistical problems a.risine; in CJA and T/A. 

I explained that being a mathematical statistican by profession I had a 

natural interest in (d), but that as a member of NSAS.AB and as a member of 

the Rol:iertson Study Group I had developed rather strong interests :l.n (a), 

(b) and (c). 

5. With this layout of interests before him, Lt. Colonel Zeller and 

Dr. Rutledge proceeded to set up a series of appointments for me for 

Se:ptem't: er 10. 

6. Having_spent :the entire afternoon with Colonel Zeller and Dr. 

·Rutledge· I was taken by Dr. Rutledge to a little sherry party at his home 

"at 5 o'clock at which Lt~ Colonel Zeller and the following GCHQ staff' 

members were present: Messrs • ...._~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ....... --- and. J. Tiltman. 

visit on Se tember lO was to the office of 

who ~sin charge of Personnel at GCHQ. I was accompanied by 

Dr. Rutledge, not only on this visit but all the others. He outlined. 

the genera.1 policy for recruiting young men from the universities for 

the pro:~essiona.l grades. He pointed out security dif'f'iculties simi.lar 

to those existing at NBA in providing able young men enough in:f'ormation 

a.bout the work of GCHQ to enable them to make sufficiently self-convincing 

decisions.as to-whether to go into the work or not., He believed. that 

a partia;t. answer to the problem was to work through university proi'essors 

who had had GCHQ experience and in whose advice students could have 

conf"ldence. The ma.in problem here was to persuade more university 

prof'esse>rs to spend some time at GCHQ to work on its problems .and acquire 

enough 1.la.ckground to ena.bl.e them to give sound advice to stu,dents whom 

they knew well. I lwent into some detail as to how the Bri tisb 

Civil Service system operates~ . I can easily see from the thoroughness 

of their selection procedures why the British Civil Servants, as a class, 

are so competent. I gained the impression that many of the personnel of 

GCHQ. had spent much if not most of' t1;:1.eir careers in that worlt •. 

8. In reply to my inquiry concerning tests and examinations :for the 

selection of C7A and T/A personnel he stated that they bad.begun some 

experimental testing with a series of tests known as Progressive Ma.trices 

and referred me to! l:r9J:' details concerning th.e results of 

these tests. I I s}:tcYw:d ne some :esults which he had obtained 

by giving the tests to personnela"l;~HQ as~ll as new applicants. He 

was quite optimistic about the possibiliti~s of' ~s·i····.Il&. ·.· .. t·.he.i progressive matrices to improve their selection proceduresforT/A.ap.d ~/A personnel. 

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In my own opinion NSA would do well to do some ex rimental testi vith 

this type of test. If this test has some validity for selection of' T A 

and C/A personnel or if it can be further developed to have sufficient 

validity, its use couJ.d., I believe, eventually contribute a great deal 

to improving C/A and T/A effectiveness at NSA. 

9. My second visit was to seel L Associate Director, 

who impressed me as a most capable man. He is the me.n perhaps most responsible 

for developing the philosophy on which the re-organization of GCHQ is based. 

He went into considerable detail concerning the reasons i"or the changes. 

I don't. think I need go into a full statement of the reasons for :ma.king 

the cba.Dge and the principles which were followed since\. they have been set 

forth in r.p. C·o···.l···.o·· .... n el Zeller's excellent memorandum. of ll\A·· .. ugust 1954. I Jdid emphasize however the pa.rticul.ar importance of the new 

Division "J" (devoted "t() the I ···········... I p.z-~ble···.m·· ... ). • He was atro .. ngl:f. convinced that by focusing the T/ A, C/A, and other skills on the I . problem 

GCHQ' s eff'ectiveness in dealing with ~b.a.t probl~D1 would be consider ... a_h_l __ y __ ...., 

increased. He referred specifically to thesμc:cessl'1ith wh±.ch theJ 

I ooncernlDi! l:j he.v~ w1thkre~~:dt~1:':~.~~=.·.·.··.~ .. · .. ·.·.····~ ... •.!~~~~:-~,...e,...t_o _ __. other segments of the( l•muumuuum )"PPL 86-36/50 USC 3605 

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10. My third visit Wd.S to the office of I V ~puty Director, with whom I discussed various general features oft the GCHQ 

organization. I also discussed with I .· tf;he role .61' NS.AB.AB and 

he showed a good deal of' interest in the id.ea of suehA:l. Boa.rd of' outside 

scientists and wondered whether this is something GCHQ, slfould ¢onsider. 

He ref' erred to an internal advisory-/colllm.i ttee. at. G .. · .CIIQ, •.. /l s. houl·d·\· say that I also talked withl Jabout NSASAB,/its functions, how it 

operated, and so on. He also showed some i:i:rterest in .this• idea. I am 

sorry I did not get to seel ~ Re/was a"i{ay at the. time. 

ll. In the afternoon, rrry f'-.i.rst visit waswithl L Head 

of the Reporting Division. I explained to./him that I was particularly 

interest~~d to fjnd ant what nrogress b. ad. /.b.een mad.~/ in the····· developm·.e· .. nt 

of' ind:I,,.cc~s of'I / / / Jwbich coul~ be exhibited 

or graphed in time. This is one of' the/problems/pointed up in the 

Robertson Repo_rt. He said his D.i.· vj;.·si····· on had :iven a great deal or a·.t· .. tention 

to this :problem and that in his opinion the I_ I had made considerable progress on it. He immedia.telY arrange .tor me to visit that group. 

Before making the visit however,! · · I gave me an excellent 

briefing on their reporting procedures, including descriptions and 

exa.'IJlples of' their various series of reports. 

;::=:=-:..:=:..;;u... __ ..,..... _ _.___. s office Dr. Rutledge and I went over to 

he.:ce.. we spent nearly an hour. I was very much ~:-;--:~=::"'='l:=-:=c::'-l method they were developing for presenting ..._ __________ __,_f all kinds as a function of' time. It seems to 

me that t.his development not oil.ly bas possibilities f'or gfying a nm.ch 

better visual account of what is going on with res:pect to~ 

activity-··but has equally good possibilities f'or .... I ...;;..... _________ !__. 
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Unfortunately, I was unable to learn whether similar work is going on 

with re.spect tol There are, of course, more than 

a dozen U.S. Naval personnel in thel land I presume they will 

bring ~ack to NSA some of' the ideas being developed there. I believe, 

however, that it would be usef 1 if f ur rsonnel concerned 

with the could have some 

13. As a rr1a.tter of fact, after my visit at GCHQ and remembering the 

great interest in the work of GCHQ on the pa.rt.of .AFSS which I discovered in 

my visi·t to AFSS in the sunnner o:f 1953 in connection with the work/of the 

Robertson Study Group I have been wondering whether there is enough liaison 

between AFSS and GCHQ. I found a f~od deal of'. si···/milari ty of .·o· utlook on 

the qua~tification problem between_ • lof GCHQ and some of the 

staff members at AFSS. I would suggest seriou.sconsideration of' more 

contact between these two groups than seems to exist at pI"esent. 

14. After my visit with the I I I returned/tel I's 

office i'or i'urther discussion about the problems o:f presentation. He is 

very !llllC:h interested in the problem o:f develo1;dng sound indices of 

----------------------' and the :Prese.ntation of the infor- mation. He is keenly aware of the pitfalls tttl. deyeloping such indices, 

and of the necessity for developing the in<lic~~>through close cooperation 

between t~os~ responsibl~ f'or developing the~inf'ormation through analysis 

and tbos.e responsible for reporting; /!B .. L 86-36/50 use 3605 

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• 15. __ At thip juncture .it was 5 6'clock •. I went home with Lt. Colonel ' 

•"_Zeller end bad an excellent d.irμior and. delightful evening with Lt. Colonel 

end Mrs • Zeller. Among ot~r .things we discovered that all three of' us 

were graduate s"t!udentf! of' the University of' l:owa, ando:t" course we had 

:¢any things to talk about regarding the University of' X.o.wa! I ,,' - i ... .. 

,16. On tbe ~: ro;Se¢ember 1J. (Sa\,urda\y) I spej,1'.oear:cy three 

hours with!ltalk.ing about many. of' tl:le mathematical and 

&,tatistica pr<;>blems Wlch have arisen in tlt!.e work o:f his group. As 

these problems arc all rather technical I shall not attempt to\.discuss them 

"here • I am very mu.ch impre ~sed byl I' a ability. In rrry opinion it 

would be v useful f'or iiim to s nd a :few months at NSA with Dr·. Leibler's 

group. Unf'ortuila.tely, _I 9,id not see He was playing chess 

- in a tOU?-"nament in Amsterdam at the me. 

I gaj.ned the impression that there is a good deal more 

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integration of T/A/ and C/A eff'ort at GCIIQ than at NSA, and that in the 

new GCHQ set-up there will be even more integration. 

18. I lef't Cheltenham in the early afternoon of' September ll, and 

af'ter an overnie;ht stay in London I :f'lew to Paris where I caught a MATS 

plane at h:OO p.m. on September 12, arriving back in Washington, D.C. 

the morning of September 13. 

19. Finally, I should mention that I actually left Washington on August 

31 by MATS, arriving in Paris on September 1. I went to .Amsterdam on Septe~ber 2 and spent f'ive days at the Internatio~.al Congress of Mathematicians before~ ma.king my visit to GCHQ. I had originally planned "Lo make the GCHQ 

visit first but found that at that time an even larger number o~ the staf'f' 

persmmel at GCHQ would have been away. 

20. In closing this memorandum I want to take this opportunity 

to ex]:>ress r:ry appreciation to Captain McDonald on this side and to 

Colonel Pull:':.og, Lt. Colonel Zeller and Dr. Rutledge for ma.king the 

arrangements required in rna.l::ing the trip. The arrangements were excellent 

in every respect. 

S. S. WILKS 

Chairman, Mathematical Panel 

NSA Scientific Advisory Board 

.... . ... . ·• ~ 

FROTH 

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