File No. 841.731/586
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6.45 p. m.]
2179. Your 1556 of 13th re telegrams concerning coffee shipments from South America to United States.
Foreign Office informs me that, after communication with censorship authorities, it has been founds that a telegram addressed to Ornstein, Rio de Janeiro, from the United States, dated March 24, was detained in London on the ground that it was in private code and without signature. The fact that the message was in transit between North and South America was unfortunately overlooked, but no trace can be found of the other telegrams mentioned; but in view of probability that an occasional oversight of this nature is more likely to occur in the United Kingdom than at stations on the direct route between North and South America, the censorship authorities hesitate to assert positively that they were not detained in England. Foreign Office concludes by saying that the attention of the censors concerned abroad, as well as in the United Kingdom, has been called to the necessity of observing the instructions already issued on this subject, and it trusts that no further inconvenience will be experienced by American firms in this respect.