CENSORS AS SPY CATCHERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 146, 9 March 1918, Page 7

CENSORS AS SPY CATCHERS

— ■ ——» - •■■■■ ■■ ENEMY WILES DEFEATED.

The Queen and Princess Mary recently visited of the Poßtal Censorship in London. "They, were accompanied by Brigadier-General' Cockerill, Direotor of Special Intelli- '• gence at the War-Office; who explain-j cd to them the work of the various departments. The present number of the .staff is 4200, of whom 3079 are women. ■ Of this total 173 men and 1256 women] work in tho Liverpool branch, where; American and Canadian mails are dealt • with, and the remainder are divided; and the branches' in London. The duties necessarilv call for trained and educated men and women, and great difficulty was experienced in securing the services of quali-j fied workers. A school was established to train - candidates to detect codes, secret writing, and other subterfuges.; The staff can deal with correspondence' in no fewer than 150 languages or dialects.

The average number of letters censored each day iB 375,517, weighing about four tons. Of these 116,700 are-com-mercial letters, the remainder private correspondence. In addition to these 117,300 newspaper packets and 2*407 p'arcels are daily examined. Tho total weight of mail matter dealt with daily is estimated at 25 tons. The main results of the postal censorship have been the complete stoppage of enemy channels of communication. It has also prevented leakage through foolish gossip of correspondents, but above all its best results have been the discovery of enemy agents, including four notorious enomy spies. £1,000,000 worth of securities in course of transit for enemy benefit has been permanently detained, and about £1,770,000 kept back pending investigation: During this year 10,000 "cloaks," or intermediaries for enemy trado, have been detected and their activities stopped. The interception of enomy propaganda, books, pamphlets, pictures (some dangerous literature being rebound in innocent school books) is another feature. In some cases British propaganda has been substituted for enemy propaganda in tho original covers _and sent on to the destination. Tho saving of public monoy through the detection of attempts to corner and hoard vital supplies lias been enormous. In one instance not long ago tho Government was saved as much as £650,000 on one relatively small transaction in an important commodity. Many tons of enemy propaganda have been sold in this country as wasto paper.