346 SECRETARIAL PRACTICE
contains, and entries should also be made of any transfers of
files to other folders. The files should not be fastened to the
folder, which should always be kept in the drawer. When a
file is removed for use outside the filing office a slip of paper
stating to whom it has been handed or the temporary receipt
form should be substituted until its return.
Each separate file of correspondence should be kept in a
stout paper (preferably manila) cover, bearing, as an endorse-
ment, the subject-matter and (if the numerical system be
employed) the reference number. The cover should be folded
twice, so that the right-hand side may be folded over the
contents before the left-hand of the wrapper (bearing the
endorsement). The slight extra cost of this form of cover
is fully justified by the condition in which papers, thus housed,
may be preserved. All the contents should be firmly fastened
in the cover by a loose tag so that the contents can be readily
opened out for reference.
The contents of each drawer should be arranged numerically
(or alphabetically, as the case may be) from front to back and
a corresponding indication placed on the outside of the
drawers.
Transfer The filing cabinet must be supplemented by transfer cases,
from Current to which files of correspondence will periodically be transferred
Piles and f; permanent storage, or for a prescribed time before their
estruction. d .
estruction.
Regarding thelatter, a timelimit (if such be at all practicable),
must be fixed to accord with the nature of the undertaking.
[n some offices it may not be possible to destroy any corre-
spondence for very many years, or only selected files may be
disposed of, and no inflexible rule can well be applied for
universal guidance. It may, however, be said with confidence
that in the majority of offices, far too many obsolete papers
of all kinds are retained, with consequent congestion of
valuable and (in many cases) limited space, and ever in-
creasing difficulty in obtaining with ease and rapidity any
document or file to which reference is desired. Certainly much
correspondence which had merely a passing importance, and
papers of a formal character, together with documents con-
taining information in the form of rough drafts (which can
consequently be obtained in a final form elsewhere) may be
disposed of in a comparatively short space of time. A period
of retention of, say, seven years, should perhaps be sufficient
in the case of the bulk of the general correspondence of an
office, while papers relating to the capital issues of a company,
including all documents connected with statutory meetings
and stock and share transfer deeds (indeed, most, if not all,
