CO129-435 - Governor Sir May & Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1916 [9-11] — Page 242

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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,