CO129-427 - Public Offices - 1915 — Page 76

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GENERAL.

List of Papers.

(A.) Swiss Minister, January 12, 1915. (File 7018/15.) (B.) Swiss Minister, January 28, 1915. (File 7018/15.) (C.) Swiss Minister, February 8, 1915. (File 7018/15.) (D.) Swiss Minister, February 18, 1915. (File 7018/15.) (E.) Italian Embassy (Memorandum), January 30, 1915. (F.) Director of Military Operations, January 18, 1915. (G.) War Office, February 2, 1915. (File 7018/15.). (H.) German Embassy (Memorandum), March 5, 1902. (1) Netherlanda Minister, March 18, 1902, (J.) Law Officers, March 31, 1902.

(File 7018/15.) (Pile 8184/15.)

In any further communleation

on the subject, please quoto

No. 101209/15.

and nådross-

The Under-Seerotary of State,

Forcign Ufco,

London.

Sir:-

رح

34826

REC

REG 29 JUEGN OFFICE

July

28

J 1915.

22

Report.

WE are of opinion that His Majesty's Government is justified in censoring letters which in the course of transit from one neutral country to another passed through British territory. We agree with the view expressed by our predecessors on the 31st March, 1902, when reporting on a similar question. It is obvious that a state of war suspends the application of Article 4 (1) of the Universal Postal Convention as between the belligerents themselves, and this shows that it is one of those Agreements which are only intended to operate in their entirety during a state of peace. It would indeed be a ridiculous construction of the Convention to suppose that it bound a belligerent State to make itself the conduit-pipe for communications intended to defeat its own measures of war.

Law Officers' Department

March 31, 1915.

JOHN SIMON. STANLEY O. BUCKMASTER.

Jor

You 168 the

г

I am directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to acknowledge

the receipt of your letter No.36148/1915 of the 24th instant

respecting the censorship measures to be taken at Hong Kong

in connection with the Trading with Enemy Proclamation of

June 25th.

Sir E. Grey would be glad if the Secretary of State

for the Colonies, should he see no objection, would cause

the Governor of Hong Kong to be informed that all telegrama

to enemy subjects in the countries covered by the Proclama-

tion should be stopped, and all telegrame to British subjects

or to allied or neutral subjects in those countries carefully

censored and stopped if found to contain anything of a

suspicious or undesirable nature.

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With regard to maile, all bags, whether sealed or not,

should be opened and carefully examined, all letters to

enemy subjects stopped, and all correspondence for British,

allied, or neutral subjects stopped if found to contain

anything

The Under-Secretary of State,

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Colonial office.