Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1919-09-04
CENSOR HELPED
DEFEAT GERMANY
Performed Great Service in
Guarding Allies Interests
During War.
TKWART MANY FOE SCHEMES
British Official Expunged "Lord Of
Hosts" From Lloyd Georges Speech
as Kaser's aid de Camp"
Smuggling Prevented.

as kaiser's aid de Camp"
Smuggling Prevented.
The British postal censor is soon 60
Ing the way of the telegraph and cable
censorShip--out. Judging from criti-
cisms I'm America, such as that of the
Merchants association to the pOstmas-
ter general. the going of this war in
stitution will be just as joyously well
coined abroad as in England. But
whatever the petulance of those who
think war restrictions have held over
too long, the postal censor, in the opin-
ion of those who have watched his
work from the viewpoint of British and
allied security throughout the war,
has been of the greatest service In
defeating Germany.
The nearness of the date Of the de-
mise of this institution has called forth
considerable information about its
work. Thus far. however, there has
been no amusing side such as was
shown during the ObsequieS for the
cable censorship.
Just after Mr. Lloyd George succeed.
ed Lord Kitchener as secretary for
wap 1t is related that he provided the
ammunition for the censor to give the
photographers a lease on war life. Mr..
Lloyd George went to BramshOtt to
bid good by to Il Canadian division
about to cross the channel. After
the inspection he made Il speech from
his motorcar concluding with a quo
tation from the Bible: "And may the
Lord of Hosts be with YOU" Core
spondents who sent their dispatches
first to the censor were surprised to
find the final words of the secretary
running in This fashion: "And may
- - - he with you 1t
was amusing. but also serious, in the
minds of the news writer's. so they
protested However, they got their re-
ply from the censcr's department:
The kaiser. having claimed the Lord
MS his aid-de-camp. no reference must
he made to the Divinity In this cOnnec-
tion."
Enemy Schemes Thwarted.
As | said, the postal censorship has
tive choiceness. The postal censor.
ship, however, has thwarted many en-
envy schemes that make just as In.
teresting or more Interesting read
ing. Furthermore, the British postal
censorship was a much farther reach
ing organization than was attempted
In America, simply because England
-. ,rh ,t-ht ht0t, rirfI
ally all questionable mail matter flowed.
The noStal censor in LOnGOn was the
dam which held the flood of continental
mail until each portion Of 1t could he
passed upon and approved before be-
ing scattered over the wide world.
An idea of the immensity of the task
can be obtained from the fact that
staff of nearly hundred expert lin
guistS was constantly employed to ex
anime and approve mail matter writ
ten and printed in more than a hun
dred languages and dialects. Manu-
scripts in every conceivable tongue
found their place in this great mass
of mail. estimated at about 100000 let
terS daily.
Much of the mail was passed with
only mechanical inspection, so sure did
the examiners become of certain cate
gories of communications. But con-
siderable more than the time saved on
harmless mail was consumed in ex
haustive examination and tests OF
questionable matter. some of which
was subjected to all manner of acid
and X-ray inquiry to detect hidden
messages.
Smuggling Prevented.
There was also for a time great
smuggling campaign, harmless looking
bundles such as newspapers contain
ing various commodities then obtain
able in enemy countries, such as cof' .
fee, rice, tobacco, sugar. and so on.
Some even contained rubber hiddtn be-
tween the pages of the papers.
The most-Sought-after evidence was
that of military character, and the
censorship of mails more than repaid
its expensive outlay in detecting In
formation that might have wrought
havoc with allied arms, or at least
helped Germany in no uncertain de
gree. There is little doubt that none
of that character of information which
the censorship obtained will be made
public, but officials directing Britain's
war ma chimes have not been slow to say
that thanks to the postal censorship
much valuable military information, OF
every conceivable character, came tc
their attention.
Propaganda was the greatest anc
most constant effort of the Germans
The most harmless appearing sets OF
newspapers and magazines, some OF
them with covers dated before the
war, dispatched from neutral nations
to individuals or societies, such as sci
entific organizations, were often founc
to contain the latest German accusa
tions of British mismanagement ir
Egypt, India or Ireland. Books, not al
ways in German, were found to con
tain everything except what the title
proclaimed. The postal censorship to
day possesses an intensely interesting
museum OF many of the propaganda
carriers the Germans sent out, OF
caused to he sent cut from their agenti
In neutral countries.