University Archives
Friendship societies
During and immediately after the Second World War a number of friendship societies emerged in support of British cultural and political links with various countries in East and Central Europe, as well as China. Amongst the most durable of these was the British-Soviet Friendship Society, the product of a union between the Russia Today Society and the National Committee for British-Soviet Unity. The records of these organisations have rarely survived, except amongst the personal papers of their members.
The Archives hold minutes, correspondence, annual (and other) reports, conference papers, bulletins and publicity material for the following societies, collected by Dr Robin Page Arnot, Reginald Bridgeman, Rev. Canon Stanley Evans and Cdr. Edgar Young:
- China Campaign Committee and British-China Friendship Association, 1938-1953 [DEV/1/16 & 50, DBN/21/1-5 and DYO/2/7];
- British-Hungarian Friendship Society, 1954 and 1968-1972 [DEV/1/62 and DAR/1/7a];
- British-Polish Friendship Society, 1953-1956 [DEV/1/56];
- British- Romanian Friendship Association, 1963-1973 [DAR/1/7b, DYO/2/20, 3/57 & 99];
- British- Soviet Friendship Society, 1941-1972 [DEV/1/24, 31, 38 & 49, DBN/18/8, DYO/2/33 & 35, 4/97, 111-113 & 124, 13/18 and DAR/1/10];
- British-Yugoslav Association, 1943-1949 [DEV/1/27];
- Czech Society of Great Britain, 1947-1948 [DYO/2/8];
- Society for Friendship with Bulgaria, 1946 and 1968-1972 [DAR/1/7c and DYO/3/29]