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indirectly with the heads of the secret service abroad through the intermediary of superior agents in London and other large centres, it would also be essential to censor home correspondence as well as that coming from or going to the Continent.
It is recognised that the establishment of an effective censorship would be extremely difficult, in view of the vast amount of correspondence by letter both within the United Kingdom and between the United Kingdom and the Continent (it would be unnecessary to establish censorship over letters intended for America or distant places), though the latter would probably be enormously reduced in the event of hostilities with a great maritime Power. It is clearly impossible to censor all letters, and it would therefore not be practicable to make effective some of the provisions of sub-heads (5) and (6) of the draft Bill of 1895 already quoted. Action, however, might perhaps be taken in the direction of :-
(i.) Opening a certain proportion of all letters, trusting to chance to find some- thing of interest.
(ii.) Opening letters addressed to suspected persons.
(iii) Opening lotters addressed in handwriting similar to that of suspected persous, copies of which handwriting would be obtained wherever possible.
The discovery of persons who might reasonably be suspected of acting as spies would be much facilitated by the passage of an Act for the control and registration of aliens, as proposed on another paper.
It has been suggested that, in order to reduce the amount of censorship, it should be restricted to London and the more important naval and military stations where foreign agents may be expected, with the postal districts immediately adjoining them. For instance, censorship might be established in Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight, and all the postal districts adjoining the Solent, where information regarding the movements of war vessels might be gained.
It is clear that evasion of the censorship, even in those districts in which it was established, would be possible unless all letters were opened, as a known agent might send his communications in type-written envelopes, so as to preclude the detection of the handwriting, to his superior under cover to some apparently innocent address. This difficulty might be partially overcome by opening a proportion of all letters on the chance of finding incriminating contents, and to a greater extent by carefully concealing the fact that censorship had been established, as it is probable that foreign spies are so accustomed to carry on their work in this country with impunity, however openly it may be conducted, that they have a sense of security that leads them to omit many precautious that would be taken elsewhere.
Censorship of postal matter for abroad need only be established in those offices, viz., London, Dover, Manchester, and Glasgow, where bags are made up for the Continent.
It has been suggested that a notice might be issued that all correspondence addressed to the Continent would be liable to censorship and the consequent delay unless it was handed in open at certain definite post offices by persons known to the post-masters. A special fee might be paid then for immediate censorship and trans-
mission.
It might even be desirable to prohibit all postal correspondence with the Continent unless the letters were handed in open and a fee paid for censorship. Even a small fee would greatly lessen the volume of correspondence.
The time when censorship is of the grestest value is immediately before the outbreak of hostilities when the fleet is being mobilised and concentrated. At such a time it might be well to hold back all correspondence for twenty-four hours. There might be occasions too when correspondence, either domestic or foreign, should be discontinued, persons desirous of sending communications would still be able to do so by telegraph, the difficulties of censoring telegraphic messages being much less.
It is for consideration whether it would not be sufficient in any Bill that may be drafted merely to seek powers authorising a Secretary of State in time of grave national emergency to issue a warrant to the General Post Office calling upon the Postmaster- General to detain and open all correspondence at his discretion and to communicate the contents to the naval and military authorities, without having to publish any notification of the establishment of censorship.
As it is probable that correspondence between superior agents in this country and their chiefs abroad might be conveyed by special messenger and not entrusted to the post, power should therefore be given to the Customs authorities to search all persons
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