Office of the Historian

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)

Department of State,
Washington, December 3, 1914.

[Telegram]

678. Your 1138, November 25 and 1183, December 2. The question of complaints concerning press and commercial cables seems one that can be relieved only by amendment of censorship regulations. It appears to Department that the demand for specific instances and names of addressees and senders of stopped telegrams would be useless in settling the general question of censorship. As is probably well known by the British censors, it would be almost impossible for Department to obtain any considerable number of instances where names and dates could be given. It appears from British statement that more than 50,000 commercial cables pass through censorship daily and therefore where isolated cases arise it must be because of the arbitrary methods adopted.

To be as specific as possible, however, Department is forwarding a protest received to-day from the Western Union Telegraph Company, which is in part as follows:

It states that, beginning November 20, French Telegraph Cable Company will accept messages for France, Algiers and Tunis, in code, provided the ABC, 5th edition; Scott’s, 10th edition; Lieber’s; Western Union; or AZ codes are used. About the same date it was learned through company’s representative at Havana that the French company had agreed to transmit plain Spanish messages for [Page 521] Spain. Both matters were immediately referred to company’s London officials and were presented view to obtaining the same privileges, and company is now advised that censors have declined its request. This action appears to company to discriminate against American cablers who desire to use American cables instead of those of the French company, which is a foreign concern. In view of this protest, please make further representations to Foreign Office to the end of having censorship restrictions removed as far as possible. This matter becomes more urgent daily, and the Department feels that something should be done immediately to relieve situation.

Bryan