A CENSOR OF TELEGRAMS.

Kumara Times, Issue 679, 30 November 1878, Page 4

A CENSOR OF TELEGRAMS.

Is (exclaims a London paper) a censor j ■of telegrams required ? Telegraph offices j swarm in all the cities, towns, and villages of the United Kingdom, and in all of them there are clerks pledged to keep the messages of the public secret, i The heads of the department are most! jealous of the confidential nature of the duties.entrusted to their subordinates,; and the discovery of a breach of confidence is punished with instant dismissal. Nothing, so far as we know, U left to the discretion of a telegraph cleik, and If a lunatic, say at the Royal Exchange, were to telegraph to the leader of the House of Commons that he would wait for him as he left the House and pistol ) shim in. a Palace Yard, the message | "would, we presume, be sent along the wires, and. after as much delay as is "Consistent With' the dignified working of official telegraphic.routine, be duly delivered, and with the same freedom from censorship, or even supervision, as af it were, a message from Mr Jones in the «ity to Mrs Jones at Clapham, stating that Mr Jones had been unexpectedly j called on to attend a Masonic lodge, ' and could not, therefoi-e possibly arrive home ; before two in the morning. The qu< stion, therefore, arises— Is a ceribrship of telegrams required, and, if called for, is it practicable 1 A short time ago, Mr Marshall, of Sheffield, haying determined to commit I suicide, called at a neighbouring telegraph office, and wiied to his brother, | at Yarraouih, that his body would he! found in a wood at Satidygate, about ; two miles from Sheffield. The tele- j gram was deliberately forwarded in the j course of business to the address indi- ! cated, and the police being set to work— | as far as we can make out—at the in- j stigation of the brother, Mr Marshall's j body. was. found in a kueeling position under a Iree, with the brains blown out, and the pistol with which he had committed the act lying beside him. | The question' arises whether, if the telegraph clerk had set the police on the track of the sender of the message, the suicide would have been -prevented, j And once more we ask—ls a censor of; telegrams required % j