There is a long tradition of the military suppressing news that it considers detrimental to national security by slapping a D-notice on it.
But when the D-notice committee decided that the time was ripe to publish its own official history, nobody imagined that it would fall victim to its own system. The history of the D-notice committee has, in effect, had a D-notice slapped on it by the D-notice committee.
‘Rear-Admiral Wilkinson declined to comment, saying: “It would be ungentlemanly for me to say anything about an elderly official in the twilight of his brilliant career.”’
best.