NEWS FOR ENEMY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 150, 3 September 1941, Page 6

NEWS FOR ENEMY

DANGEROUS LETTERS

DEFINITE EXAMPLES

Careless writing in.New Zealand is even more dangerous than dangerous talking, especially when this unguarded writing takes the form of letters 'which go. overseas..

People writing to friends and relatives in other parts of the world, maybe to men and women who are serving with the > armeel forces abroad, rarely think that they may be communicatingwith the enemy, yet an incident disclosed by the Australian authorities has given ample -of one occasion at rleast ! when this occurred. Soon'after, several'ships fell victim to ,a raider- in .the Pacific some timqago, the (Australian authorities discovered on an island certain mail bags which, had been dumped there by the, raider. The bags contained some',o^'*"the' outward Australian mail carried by one of the vessels which had been sunk. An examination of the remaining- contents cf the bag showed that''the raider had examined the whole of the mails:, retained'all'that were of value and discarded" the'rest. An analysis dis,closec£?tlle number of letters and parcels 'he had ltept. - I

Movements df Troopship®

From much of the mail recovered, from the registered letters and packets in "particular, it was possible to elicit the nature of tlia matter which the enemy had fcund useful or interesting* The investigation showed, too, that while one letter might not give a full story, n series of letters .written at about the same time by, different hands could provide a comprehensive pielure .of a country's .preparations,its sentiments, and'its wartime a!> tivities generally, including, of course, information of the movement of troop-carrying ships.

Fast transmission • by air mails and by radio adds to the dangers of the leakages through the. mails. Writers of letters do not realise that expert minds can extract from a series oft 'seemingly unimportant scraps of information vital details which no one would, dream of placing in the way of'the enemy.' If ihey did realise the danger, wellknown to members .of Intelligence staffs, they would not discuss certain subjects to which they;,devote themselves in letters which, may, through unexpected mishaps, come into the enemy's possession. i The discarded, mSili'<bags showed how the«;efforts,. to disguise 'refer- ! ences to vital subjects were childishly ineffectual wlfea other letters were ;at hand to fill' out the picture, even when those letters were written by people who " thought they were hiding the truth' from prying eyes, * ' Difficulties and) Headaches Censorship is full of difficulties, and headaches, because so many thoughtless -people endeavour to include in their letters .statements which can only sneak past the censor's eye if they* are disguised.

It is amazing how many writers of letters seek to pass on rumours, especially those which are distressing or sensational. Rumours of ships sunk, of disasters <of various kinds, are included in letters and often, too depressing statements which, if received by soldiers overseas, cannot do other than cause them concern. Ship movements, references to warships or to defence activities are included, and statements from which an astute enemv could build up a useful route map, with a consequent danger to those

who later have to go overseas

The advice given by censors tu writers of letters is to avoid any reference to "any matters connected with the Naval, Military and Air Forces: to write always Avith the idea that an enemy eye—an extremely keen enemy eye—may read what is written and may find in this

letter the one link needed to complete the chain built by a number of other letters and to make suspicion a certainty or to correct a misconception. On the other hand, a letter may be useful asi propaganda.

Censors are fellow-countrymen of those who writ© the letters and their purpose is to prevent useful information falling into the hands Of the enemy by accidents like those Which the discovery of the ransacked mail bags oh the Pacific island revealed.

: But the best censorship, it is argued, is that which is exercised at the source—by the writer of tha letter.