File No. 841.711/107a
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)
2404. For your information. On November 1 I had an interview with the British Ambassador in which I discussed complaint of the Postmaster General that sealed letter mail passing between the United States and neutral European countries over British territory was being opened, censored, and in some instances retained by the British authorities contrary to the terms of the postal convention of 1906.1 The Ambassador was informed that the Postmaster General had referred particularly to Articles 1, 4, 11, and 16 of the convention and Article 1 of the regulations for putting the convention into effect, and that under Article 1 of the regulations it seemed that the British postal administration should have notified the United States postal administration either that Great Britain would not act as an intermediary for the transit of such mails, or that if she continued to act as intermediary, she would exercise a censorship over such mails.
The British Ambassador has promised to take the matter up immediately with his Government.
- 35 Stat. L. 1639 et seq.↩