The Washington herald., 1918-07-06
DANIELS ASKS
CLOSE CHECK
ON SHIP NEWS
Suppression Of All Refer
ence to Location De-
manded.
U.B0ATS THE REASON
Possibility Suggested Of Aid
to Enemy Who May Be
in Our Waters.
t.BOATS THE REASON

Warning of a possible resumption
of enemy submarine operations on
this side Of the Atlantic was given
yesterday by Secretary Daniels In the
following appeal to the press:
ITO the Press in America:
The reappearance Of submarines on
the Atlantic Coast makes II impera-
tive that no mention should be made
in any newspapers, either in the ad-
vertising or news columns, of the
sailing or departure, or location, or
supposed location Of any ship IN
american waters.
This information conveyed by ad-
vertising Is as dangerous as in the
news columns. and I am making this
request to all the newspapers in the
country in the assurance that they
will cooperate with the government
in its efforts to prevent any informa-
tion about ships reaching submarines
which may be OF the American coast.
(Signe0 Josephus Daniels, Secretary
of the Navy"
Indication Not Definite.
The Secretary took pains to indi-
cate that there was no definite indi-
cation that the enemy U-boats were
about to resume operations along the
American coast.
I'VE are forced to proceed on the
assumption" he said, that they are
lurking in our waters, in order to in
sure ourselves against being taken on
guard"
The suggestion of the new appeal
for the suppression of all news of
ship movements came direct from the
Bureau of Naval Intelligence-the se-
cret service branch Of the nayy-which
has been at work ever since the first
appearance Of the hostile craft on this
side OF the Atlantic to ascertain
whether there Is collusion between the
, U-boat commanders and enemy spies
in this country.
Although no positive evidence has
been gathered. naval intelligence Off
GERS have strong reason to believe, It
is said, that advertisements in news
papers concerning ship sailings for
various points were in some way COM
municated to the submarines during
the last raid. It is known, for ex-
ample, that Officers of the bureau in
cooperation with agents of the De-
partment of Justice have carefully
searched along the Atlantic coast for
| evidence of hidden wireless plants
AVN HCWS COuiu IldSne0 10
the enemy at sea. Consideration has
! likewise been given to the possibility
that the U-bo" =. were able to obtain
information Of value from newspa-
pers captured on steamers and sailing
craft which they destroyed.
There has been close scrutiny of
the personal columns" Of the
various newspapers in New York
and other tide-water cities to learn
IL enemy spies were using these as
medium of clandestine cores
pondence among themselves regard
ing the movements of ships. Des-
pite the vigorous measures that
have been resorted to round up all
dangerous enemy aliens" in the
country. it is realized that num-
bers of spies are still at large.
Includes Pacific.
AS originally worded, the Secre-
tgry's statement warned against
the publication of ship movements
''in the Atlantic or Gulf waters"
These are the waters where the
real menace from the submarines
exists, but fearing that this Ian
guage would result in a lowering of
the bars against publication of ship
movements on the west coast as
well, it was modified to read I'm
American waters"
In the time that has elapsed since
the German submarines first began
their Western Atlantic raid, the
navy has vastly Increased the ef-
fectiveness of the coast patrol and
anti-submarine defense systems
along the seaboard. For that rea-
son the department Is confident of
being able to handle the situation
should a new raid be undertaken.