File No. 841.731/308
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9.05 p. m.]
1570. I have not relaxed my efforts to mitigate the censorship of commercial cables. But for reasons explained in my 1514, January 22, I have no hope of any further favorable results. The representatives of other neutral governments here feel as I do. The censor’s [Page 704] office inform me that they are looking up the stopped cables of which you have sent me copies and that this task involves looking through about a million telegrams. When they have found them they simply inform me that such as were stopped were stopped, “under the rules of the censor’s office.”
Their action is a war measure. Unless our past action under similar conditions permits us to go further than merely to ask a change of the rule as a favor or unless they are acting beyond their clear rights in the premises, I do not see what more we can do than to remind them of the hardships we suffer.