File No. 841.731/6
The Ambassador in Great Britain (
Page
) to the Secretary of State
American Embassy,
London
,
August 24, 1914.
[Received September 4.]
No. 419]
Sir: With reference to your telegram of August
15, 5 p.m., I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a note I
have just received from the Foreign Office touching the censorship of
telegraphic messages passing over the Atlantic cables.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure]
The British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs (
Grey
) to the
American Ambassador (
Page
)
Foreign Office,
August 23, 1914
.
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments
to the United States Ambassador and has the honour to refer to the
memorandum which the United States Embassy were good enough to
communicate to this office on the 17th instant, on the subject of
certain representations made by the Western Union Telegraph Company
to the State Department in respect of the censorship of telegraphic
messages passing over the Atlantic cables.
Sir Edward Grey has the
honour to point out that, in order to enable the censors to carry
out their instructions without unduly delaying the delivery of
telegrams, it is essential that they should be able to tell at a
glance to whom a message is addressed and from whom it emanates.
Subject to this condition being observed, the British censors have
not been requiring full addresses or signatures in the case of
really well-known firms.
As regards enquiries respecting the delivery of such messages as may
have been stopped in the public interest it does not appear to be
practicable to remove the prohibition on such enquiries without
impairing the usefulness of the censorship.
While therefore they are anxious to inconvenience the company as
little as possible, His Majesty’s Government regret that they are
unable, for the reasons stated above, to modify the censorship
regulations to the extent desired.
