File No. 841.731/92
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
London, December 2, 1914.
[Received 7:20 p.m.]
[Telegram]
1183. Your 582 and my 1138. I have just received the following statement from Sir Edward Grey:
In connection with complaints about both press and commercial cables, I can make no progress without specific instances of difficulties. The censorship ask that the names of the addressees and senders of stopped telegrams should be given in order that inquiry may be made. The chief censor is willing to make most searching inquiry, and if it is found that any message has been stopped without sufficient prima facie grounds, all the necessary steps will be taken to prevent the occurrence of similar cases in future. The chief censor would indeed welcome specific instances, as they would possibly be accompanied by evidence of the innocence of messages that have appearance of being suspicious and this might give a clue to the nature of a whole class of messages. The chief censor is confident that American and Swiss telegrams are not being stopped wantonly, but only when there appears on the face of them good reasons for supposing that they may be improper messages. About 50,000 commercial telegrams between neutral countries pass through the hands of the censorship every day, and I imagine that comparatively few are delayed.