In editing the Joyce history I have deliberately refrained from consulting the Haldane version. I have also attempted to restrict amendments to correction of obvious typographical errors, to correction of misspelt personal or place names, to amendments of text when the events related are known by me to be at variance with the facts and to minor amendments to clarify the meaning of the text or to avoid repetition. There will be many undetected errors remaining in the text where I, and others who have read the draft, are unaware that spelling of some names or places is incorrect or where we were unaware that the text contained factual errors. Some of those interviewed by Dr Joyce may feel that he has not accurately related what they were trying to convey. I have found this to be the case in some of the statements he has attributed to me, but have felt that the only sensible course of action was to leave these statements essentially as Dr Joyce reported them. It seemed undesirable to alter any of these statements when it was not feasible to check them all. Thus the history should be regarded as the way Dr Joyce saw it, or heard about it. This, after all, applies to the manner in which the personal perspective of the author of any history is reflected in the shape of the history and the emphasis therein.

Ian Forrest and other staff of the Bureau of Meteorology have made important contributions to the editing of this history by reading the draft, preparing edited versions and suggesting desirable amendments. Thanks are due to Ian for his overall coordination of the editing, to Marie Birkeland for her initial typing of the draft and to Pam Bruhn and Debbie Dowel for their work in processing the many editorial changes and other corrections.

W. J. Gibbs

September 1992

Bureau of Meteorology