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only closed mails passing in transit through the United Kingdom to and from neutral countries to be forwarded. Persons desiring to communicate with any country, except that with which Great Britain is at war, during the suspension would be able to do so by telegraph, subject to the censorship which it has already been arranged to bring into operation as soon as war is declared.

7. What should happen in the matter of postal arrangements during subsequent stages of a war must depend so much on its course that it is not possible to elaborate such arrangements in advance. If it is decided to maintain a complete censorship in spite of the commercial loss and inconvenience to neutrals which it must involve, then it would have to be arranged that all postal packets addressed to specified countries in easy communication with the enemy should be accepted only when open and written en clair in one of the better known European languages.

Inward letters from the Continent should be closely examined, and any found addressed to, or which appear to be intended for, suspected persons, should be opened, and delayed or detained at the discretion of the censors.

Even with the diminished traffic which is likely to be expected under war conditions the work thrown upon the censorship staff under an arrangement of this kind would be considerable. It is probable that as many as fifty persons would be required to examine the correspondence handed in at London offices alone; but if the duty were carried out by censors established at all the offices shown on the attached list, at which mails are made up for the Continent, and at the naval and military centres, congestion would be avoided and the work facilitated.

As regards inland correspondence, it would, it is thought, suffice if the Post Office staff were to continue the general watch previously referred to. If they were supplied with lists of the addresses and specimens of the writing of suspected persons it would probably be found unnecessary to take any more drastic step, inasmuch as it would be impossible to make effective use of any intelligence that might be sent by inland post while the foreign telegraph service and the continental mails were closely censored.

8. There is no provision either in the Post Office Acts or in the International Postal Convention governing the institution of special measures such as those proposed; but in time of war a Government naturally has a right to stop and examine all commu- nications, whether postal or telegraphic, issuing from or addressed to its own subjects or other persons coming under its jurisdiction, as well as to give priority to all Govern- ment despatches, telegrams, or telephonic communications. Special legislation such as that suggested in the draft Bill prepared by Sir John Ardagh in 1895 would not be required.

The Solicitor to the Post Office advises, however, that an Act of Parliament would be necessary to legalise the regulation that letters for specified countries would be accepted only when handed in open, and that, as regards neutral countries, the imposition of such a regulation would amount to a breach of the Postal Union Convention.,

MATTHEW NATHAN,

June 27, 1910.

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