File No. 841.731/612
The Minister in the Netherlands (Van Dyke) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 9, 8.35 p. m.]
289. Your 164. Oversea Trust has been working for a week on plan to form a special committee of the trust for transmission both ways of such telegrams as you describe, but thus far consent of British Government has not arrived. I recommend that the Department make a formal and urgent request through the British Ambassador at Washington that the British Government shall clearly state and justify the principles and rules of the censorship of commercial cablegrams in London which is now conducted in such a manner that American shippers and merchants suffer serious and unnecessary loss. The plan of transmission through Oversea Trust would, in my opinion, ease the situation which is now very bad. Messages which seem to us entirely innocent and free from secret meaning are stopped. The trust committee might shut out possibility of secret codes by paraphrasing messages or translating into another language.