Evening star., 1915-02-18

particularly the cartoon previously re-
ferred to. Some of the views ex-
pressed are those an Amerfcan-or at
least some Americans-would express.
monarchy.
Americans in Australia regarded it as
an ill advised letter. and the state OF
feeling in Australia over the war ana
the attitude of the United States is evil
IDENTIFY SO high that private letters re-
ceived in Washington seriously attempt
to question whether Mr.. Harding is
actually an American instead or being
an Australian masquerading as a ctti-
zen of the United States for the pur-
pose of stirring up trouble.
One man offered to donate $500 to
the Belgian relief fund if the sydney
Times could prove Mr.. Harding to be
an American. provided the paper would
donate a like sum if it could not SO
prove.
This letter aroused a storm Of protest
all over Australia, and the Times pub
fishes columns and columns of replies
from correspondents, who attack the
United States.
Some explanation of the apparent ig-
norance of Australians of the fact that
the people of the United states as a
whole are not siding against the allies
may be found in complaints that also
have reached Washington the past few
days that Americans in Australia. as
we'll as MANY friendly Australians
from the United States. and in many
cases, 1t is said, even American news
papers are held UP by the censors.
Complain of Mail Held Up.
A copy of a letter received in Wash
ington has the following to say of the
censorship:
January 4, 1e15-As time passes I
find the conduct Of the censors very
serious. December 81. and again jan
uary 4. I got copy of the Utica. New
York, Globe which had been held UP
by the censor for two weeks. Satur-
day my sister received parcel OF New
York Heralds and the Times OF Octo-
ber IS. which had been opened and
tied up. Those papers must have been
here six weeks.
My New York shipping agents have
never missed a mail in over third OF
century until the present. 1 should
have received a letter from them, post
ed in November, containing shipping
receipts and statements of goods COM
ing forward. disbursements. etc, but
have received nothing, which leads me
to believe that their letters have been
confiscated.
November, composed on the Sonoma.
but typed and posted from Sydney, de-
scribing incidents of the voyage.
Il cannot understand why the Aus
tral1an authorities SnOulu ConHScdte
Canadian and American letters, when
the Canadian authorities were not In
terfering with letters posted in can
ada to people in the United states or
received in Canada from the United
States-at least, mine were never In
terfered with in August, September or
October, and l was travelling between
those points all the time.
My previous letters contained clip
pings from Sydney newspapers, which
denounced the United States In the
most bitter terms.
Many lying cablegrams have ap-
peared in the press here. Later on;
when American newspapers arrived. ]
wrote the newspapers here to correct
them, but only rarely will they pub
lish the corrections.
To-day ] am further surprised TO re-
ceive a package containing nine issues
of the Wall Street Journal. The wrap
per was opened and tied up again and
four stamps used, reading: Opened
by censor On outside of wrapper is
printed in very large type, From the
Wall Street Journal. New York. This
parcel has been lying here since the
Ventura arrived. December IA.