CO129-427 - Public Offices - 1915 — Page 75

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

[38118]

[File 16768/1915.]

GENERAL.

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Gentlemen,

Foreign Office to the Law Officers of the Crown.

Foreign Office, February 19, 1915. I HAVE the honour, by direction of Secretary Sir E. Grey, to enclose, for your Censorship consideration, copies of four notes from the Swiss Minister (Papers (A), (B), (C), and of letters (I))), and a Memorandum from the Italian Ambassador (Paper (E)), relative to the pain

through opening in Singapore of letters from Switzerland and Italy in transit, through the local British British postal administration, to destinations in neutral territory.

tenitory

Deutral

It will be seen that M. Carlin and the Marquis Imperiali question the right of His from one Majesty's Government to submit to censorship correspondence in transit from and country to addressed to neutral countries, basing their contention on the Universal Postal another. Convention, 1906, Article 4, sub-section (1), which provides that The right of transit

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is guaranteed throughout the entire territory of the Union." The Italian Ambassador also cites Article 1 of The Hague Convention No. 11, 1907, which declares that, with certain irrelevant exceptions, "The postal correspondence of neutrals or belligerents, whatever its official or private character, found at sea on board a neutral or enemy ship is inviolable.

33

The question of the rights of censorship possessed by His Majesty's Government, in the circumstances already described, forms the subject matter of a note from the Director of Military Operations (Paper (F)) and of a letter from the Secretary of the War Office (Paper (G)), copies of which are enclosed herewith. You will observe that the Director of Military Operations proposes to submit to censorship neutral corre- spondence from America of the kind which the Swiss Minister and the Italian Ambassador consider to be immune from interference under the provisions of inter- national Agreements ratified by His Majesty's Government, and that the letter from Sir R. Brade (Paper (G)) contests the meaning placed upon the Article of the Universal Postal Convention cited by the Swiss Minister, and quotes Articles 2 and 16 of the same Convention in support of the views held by the Army Council.

A similar question arose during the Boer War. In pursuance of the Martial Law Regulations which were in force in Cape Colony, the military authorities were in the habit of opening correspondence in transit to German South-West Africa. The German Government objected to the practice, and the question whether it was consistent with the Postal Convention then in force was submitted to the Law Officers. Copies of the note received from the German Ambassador on the 5th March, 1902 (Paper (H)), and a note submitted by the Dutch Minister on the 18th March, 1902 (Paper (I)), which were submitted to the Law Officers, are enclosed herewith. Your predecessors reported on the 31st March, 1902, that letters transmitted under the Convention were liable to examination in the same way as other letters, and that the provisions of the Convention must be regarded as applicable to a state of peace. A copy of the opinion is enclosed for convenience of reference (Paper (J)).

Since that date the Postal Convention of 1906 has replaced the previous Convention, but the provisions relating to this question have not undergone material change,

In view of the opinions now expressed by the Italian Ambassador and the Swiss Minister, and the importance of the principle at stake, Sir E. Grey would be glad if

you will take the enclosed papers into consideration and favour him with your opinion whether His Majesty's Government possess the right to submit to censorship correspondence passing in transit between neutral countries through British postal administrations.

Sir E. Grey would also be glad to be favoured with any observations of a general nature which you may be good enough to offer.

I have, &c.

[260-2]

EYRE A. CROWE.