Army put curbs on non-white recruits

The army secretly maintained a policy of "quota restrictions" on non-white recruits for almost two decades, according to official files made public today.

The papers, unveiled as the new Freedom of Information Act took effect, reveal that Army medical officers were told to make a note of recruits with "asiatic or negroid features", a policy which could be extended to someone of Mediterranean appearance or even a "swarthy Frenchman".

It appears the data was used to limit the number of ethnic minority troops. The system was regarded as so sensitive that not even ministers were told of its existence.

Army officials knew there would be an outcry if the policy came to light. When, in 1972, the Institute of Race Relations asked for a breakdown of "coloured" soldiers the Army spent nine months agonising over a response before issuing a lie.

"The Army no longer maintains the statistical information to enable it to identify coloured soldiers," it replied.

The national archive at Kew has opened more than 50,000 secret Government papers which previously would have stayed closed for 30 years. Documentsrevealed new details of Harold Wilson's resignation as prime minister in 1976, the miners' strike in 1984-5 and the response to Aids in the Eighties.

Whitehall is braced for a major assault from journalists and campaigners demanding information under the new law. The public now has a right to obtain information from 100,000 public bodies including government departments, councils, police, schools and hospitals.

In Mr Wi l s on's newly-disclosed statement to the Cabinet in March 1976, he set out four reasons for quitting-He said he had been Labour leader for 13 years; he wanted to give others the chance to succeed him; he thought his counter-inflation policy was safe, and he was seeing decisions come around for a second time.

The files also show civil servants had to wait 17 years for softer lavatory paper. Appeals were made in 1964, 1967 and 1969, but it was only in 1981 that the request was granted after the soft rolls price fell below that of harder paper.