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Navy.
The command of the seas can permit & ship
to be brought into port; it cannot secure con-
dermation of ship or cargo.
The Postal Censorship
supplies the Prize Court with a volume of clear
and reliable evidence which is essential to the
equitable and effective conduct of the blockade.
It discloses financial and other transactions on
enemy account otherwise unidentifiable. Its existence
acts as a deterrent upon the loading of enemy goods
and thereby helps to secure for the allies the use
of all available tonnage. In short if effectively
exercised, it may paralyse enemy business.
It may
safely be asserted that, from every point of view, the
information derived from the censorship of letter mails
taken from neutral ships is the most valuable acquired
from any source during the war.
The Council are of opinion that every opportunity
should be taken of enlightening the American public
in regard to the efforts being constantly and
successfully made to reduce to a minimum the delay
to postal correspondence and the inconvenience to the
public caused by the censorship..
There is one other point which though it cannot
perhaps be incorporated in the reply to the American note should, in the Council's opinion, be brought
forcibly to the notice of the American people. Papers
recently intercepted in the censorship and duly
communicated to you for the information of Secretary
Sir E. Grey proved conclusively that the agitation
against the censorship has been engineered to a great
extent in Berlin, and there is evidence on the
admission of those engaged in this task that the
American people so late as the first week in April
were,