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TO
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COPY.
Postmaster General,
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the Censorate.
"Examination of Transit Mail Bag="
A list of Kail Bage in transit is supplied to
Those selected for examination are sent in to the Censors' Office, by the Mail Officer, with a form showing the origin and destination of sach bag and the name of the ship which brought it. The bags are then opened (in the Censors' Offlos) and immediately sealed up after examination. Two postmen are attached to the Censors'
office. The bag is then returned to the Mail Officer, the above-
mentioned form showing that it has been opened.
The time required to examine a bag varies; &
single bag with small contents may be returned in as short a time
as 10 minutes; a lot of full bags coming in together would of
course take longer. It should be understood that bags are not
delayed during examination for letters to be censored. This can
be done afterwards, and the letters forwarded as if they were passing through à découvert. Also examination of Transit Baga takes
precedence of all other work in the Censors' Office. Examination
og of baga is rendered expeditious by the fact that the officerB
engaged have been doing the work for a long time and know more
or less what to look for.
The numbers of Transit Bage examined in the
last six weeks have been 185, 95, 153, 165, 192, 141.
After the bags are returned to the Kail
Officer their further treatment is the same as if there were no
Censorship.
Unless detention has been deliberate, as, for
example, in the case of enemy mail bags, all Transit Mails have
been forwarded by the same ship which would have taken them if
there had been no Censorship.
(sd.) G. P. de Martin,
for Postal Censor.
13.9.17.
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