Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-02-05
NAVAL OFFICIALS, HANDLING HARD
SITUATION, APPLY CENSORSHIP

, ia" I'LL ~ ulutI llb SllIAIESA
tary censorship the territory has ever
known.
I Cable and wireless plants are under
i the complete control OF the naval au-
I tko!lties and the rules enforced are
more rigid even than those applied
| here in the first days Of the European
war in 1914. At that time, with the
/ German gunboat Geier and the Ger
/ man merchantmen fleeing 10 this port.
| the naval censOrs took charge, but
| though the wireless service was large
| ~ restricted, there was comparatively
J little restriction on cable service.
The censorship wsat into full ef-
! feet about Ii o'clock yesterday. At
that time correspondents Of mainland
news agencies and large papers were
! filing rush messages &c their mann
land offices, both by wireless and
cable, and efforts were also being
made by the Honolulu papers to get
news from the mainland.
That the Censorship was operating
first became evident when the Asso-
cfated Press news from the mainland
was delayed while il was being passed
l.ere. However, it was not until long
afterward that local correspondents OF
mainland agencies learned that every
message they had filed in the morn
ing was held in the telegraph offices.
Telegraph Offices Cannot Give Infor-
nation
Efforts to learn what had been done
with these messages were met at the
telegraph offices with flat refusals to
discuss the matter The correspond
ents were also refused permission to
telegraph their mainland offices that
the censorship here did not allow
news to be sent. Meanwhile, either
flash" messages before IL o'clock
had succeeded in getting through. with
the meager facts that the Geier was
burning, or else information had been
given out to the press by the navy
authorities in Washington of the Geier
incident, for Immediately the Asso.
ciated Press cabled its day and night
correspondents here requesting fur
ther details These could not be sent
and at that time it appeared that not
even notification of the censorship
was allowed to go from Honolulu TO
the mainland, except through military
messages. .:..1
Not until night we're the correspond
ents allowed to send the bare notifica-
ton of the censorship being in opera.
ton. ". ."s ...:.>
At this time also the suddenly ap-
piled rules we're relaxed sufficiently
to allow cable and wireless messages
to tell senders of messages whether
or not the messages had been allowed
to CO.
No complaint whatever has been
made of the activities of the news
correspondents here The naval au-
thorities state that their action is
taken in line with military necessity.
Censorship 10 Naval a.
The censorship is under the super
vision of the naval officers here, as
1t was when applied in the early weeks
of the European war. At that time
the wireless offices were supervised
by naval men, who took desks in the
wireless offices and passed immediate.
ly on messages. The cable office did
not have such supervision.
The theory of the censorship in the
wireless offices was that no news
whatever of the movement of ships
at sea or other naval information was
to be allowed to go out by wireless
for fear it would be picked up by one
of the belligerents and turned to mill
Vary use, which would have been a
violation of U. S. neutrality.
How Regulations Worked Out
Observance Of this theory led to
interesting situations at that time.
~ ~ A L. kS1l
was allowed to come by cable, but not
by wireless. Virtually no news was
allowed to come by wireless which