File No. 841.711/1193
The Consul General at London (Skinner) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 25.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that within the last ten days practically all letters addressed to me or to the Consulate General, of American origin, have been opened by the censors. I have been somewhat surprised to note this change of practice as, on January 15 last, in consequence of the accidental opening of one of my letters I received the following communication from the assistant censor in charge at Liverpool:
[Page 623]Dear Sir: I regret extremely that the envelope of this letter was inadvertently opened by one of the examiners in this office.
The letter itself has not been read. The orders as to the immunity from censorship of all letters addressed to consuls of neutral powers are very explicit and the error can only have been due to gross carelessness. I have warned the offender and hope that similar mistakes will be avoided in future, and I herewith tender you my sincere apologies.
Believe me [etc.]
A. Tidy (Major)
Assistant Censor in Charge, Liverpool
It is my understanding that the British Government do not consider that consular mail is entitled to immunity from censoring, but have undertaken not to interfere with strictly official communications as, for example, communications forwarded by the Department of State to consular officers in this country.
The American consuls at Birmingham and Liverpool both inform me that nearly all of their letters have been opened within the last four days and I have no doubt that this is also the experience of all of our consular officers in this country.
As a very large proportion of incoming letters received at this office have to do with detained consignments of goods, the delay resulting from the opening and examination of communications of this character obviously will interfere with my work in connection with these matters.
I have [etc.]
[Concerning a speech by the British Commercial Adviser to certain New York bankers touching on censorship of the mails, see the letter of the Secretary of State to the Counselor of the British Embassy, September 28, 1916, and the Counselor’s reply, September 29, 1916, ante, page 450.]