THINK BEFORE YOU WRITE!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 148, 24 April 1942, Page 13

THINK BEFORE YOU WRITE!

Women Are Mostly Responsible For Censorship Breaches

\X 7 OMEN, New Zealand’s most prolific, correspondents, are responsible for about 75 per cent of the many hundreds of breaches of the censorship regulations that are detected by the authorities each month. These breaches, of which the commonest are disclosures of sailing dates of troopships and descriptions of internal defence dispositions, are mostly unintentional, but they all give away information of value to the enemy, and are not less objectionable because they are committed in ignorance, or thoughtlessly. These are the main points from a confidential report on his work issued this week by a censorship authority, and now in part made available for publication. The report concludes with an appeal to all writers of letters to think well before they write, because it is not possible to look at every one of the tens of thousands of letters addressed overseas each week, and mails may be intercepted by the enemy at any stage of their sea journey. The report also reminds correspondents that there are sharp penalties for breaches of the regulations, "In almost every case, it is obvious that the writers have not realised that they are putting on .paper information that would be highly useful to the enemy if the letter came into his hands," the report states. "It is not widely enough realised that military ~ intelli- _ gence is nothing more than the piecing together of many small and seemingly

unrelated facts. One fact in one letter may be useless to an enemy, but from one fact in each of a thousand letters he can build a sizeable body of accurate information. Therefore, any fact which concerns any ship or branch of any of the Services is potentially dangerous. Three Simple Tests "If correspondents could be induced to apply three simple tests to their writing, letters which are now a constant menace to the safety of troops and ships would become harmless. The first rule is: Is the information true? That is, do I know positively that it is true, or have I merely picked it up casually? The second test is: Has the person to whom I am writing any right to the information? Only in one case in a thousand will he have that right. Because he is in one of the services, he is not automatically entitled to the information. The third test is: Would the information help an enemy intelligence man in his work if it came into his hands. ‘ A common and most dangerous type of breach, the report continues, is the giving away of the probable sailing date of ships, particularly troopships. Sometimes the information is accurate, but mostly it is merely guessing. Breaches of this type would cease altogether if people realised that by giving away a date of sailing they may be putting into the hands of the enemy information that will make it possible for him to sink the ship and kill all on board,