&& Vfii,;f 1.\UVW UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT HISTORICAL REPORTS ON WAR ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF CENSORSHIP-SERIES 1 WASHINGTON, D. C. A REPORT ON THE OFFICE OF CENSORSHIP ~ ~ ~,!h~ -~ . - ·7 ,·~· D_:1:1i22 • ~1 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON - 1945 THE OFFICE OF CENSORSHIP WASHINGTON 25 November 15, 1945. THE PRESIDENT, The White House, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: Pursuant to your letter of July 6, 1945, to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, I herewith transmit to you A Report on the Office of Censorship as part of the administrative history of the Government during World War II. Respectfully submitted, BYRON PRICE, Director. It For sale by Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D. C.- Price cents ~ 'l Table of t;ontents PAGE Introduction . 1 I. Censorship As Viewed from the Office of the Director 3 II. Postal Censorship . 19 III. Cable Censorship . 25 IV. Press and Radio Censorship . 32 V. The Achievements of Censorship . 43 I •' 1 v ) , ........ , i""'"i INTRODUCTION I I I I : : : I ~ : ~ : :. : ~ :; Any approach to censorship in a democratic country is fraught : ~ : : : : ! ,...... I I I :I I I o I I I I with serious difficulties and grave risks. It is not too much to I I I I I I I I !. ............ ... a• I I say that no operation connected with war merits more careful c• ,...... , ,.. .. .. , ,...... , <:>'"'' · ~ : 1 I I I 1 I planning or more thoughtful administration. '": '2• I I I I 1 1 "''zo :E: I : I I 2 I I I The word itself arouses instant resentment, distrust and fear : ~ : : ! : :! : Ei: ·-~ ; :. I I I I 1 I the censor does is contrary to the I ~I o ~ ~ among free men. Everything ....a.•"'' I ~ I I • I 1 • I :; : I~ I I :1 I I I fundamentals of liberty. He invades privacy ruthlessly, delays a: I M l I I I I 1 I ~: I I! I !. .. .. .! I I ~--.! ~--~ and mutilates the mails and cables, and lays restrictions on public """'' I I '"'' I I ,....... , ,.... .... 1-- --. expression in the press. All of this he can continue to do only :g: I I I I 1 I 1 I I 1 I I 1 :ffi: I 1 :3 I I I ~ .. 1 I ~~~~: so long as an always-skeptical public is convinced that such extra­ ~u: ! : : ! : : ~ : : ordinary measures are essential to national survival. The cen­ ·· ~·- ' : ~ : : : : : d: ' : : : 9 : : : sor's house is built on sand, no matter what statutes may be ' !. ..... L .. enacted, or what the courts may declare. ~ ~--J J ' Having in mind the normal tendency of censorship to feed on '' itself, erecting higher and higher bureaucratic barriers as the '' '' consciousness of great authority ripens, the old Romans decreed ' that no censor could hold office for a longer period than a year '' and a half. ..A1l our own country it should be understood that no ' I one who does not dislike censorship should. ever:J2~.Jlermitted to ' I ' I e~r:cis.e censorship. _All planning for censorship should rest ' I .... -... -·-- -............................. ---- _, firmly on a determination to apply restraints in such a way as to 'I 1' I"""'"' .............. .., I 1 I I I I I I ...:z: I t I I I I I I preserve, rather than to destroy, free institutions and individual >­ ... : : : ~: : ~ : : ~ : liberties.l <:> ••••: : : ; I : : ... ~ :! : <.> The first and last principle to be remembered, then, is that : : : ~ : : ~ : : 3: E I 1 t I I I I I 0 censorship should come into being solely as an instrument of war........... : : ..... : !. .., .. .! ~ ~-.-.! It !'1.1 I I I must charge itself only with contributing to the success of ........ ....... ! ........ ! ' ~ ~ armed combat./To the extent its operations are permitted to '' wander into other pathways, to the extent it concerns itself with '' the enforcement of peacetime statutes or the policing of political ' and personal foibles,-to that exact extent does it weaken its ' service to the nation's armed men on the field of battle. ' ' ...................................] Censorship's work may be said to divide itself into two separate ' '' tasks. The first is to deprive the enemy of information and of . :···i :····: :····: tangibles, such as funds and commodities which he can use against 1 I I I I 1 ' ' ' : : : !i : i ~ : our armies and our navies. The second is to collect intelligence ' : ~ ! : § : : ~ : of many kinds which can be used against the enemy. No censor­ : a : : : : : i1 : r~1 .......' ; · ···~ •a• .. ' ! : : = : : : : : ship can fail to go dangerously afield unless it holds rigidly and .'"'', ..a .o •' ' ~ ..... : L... ! L ...· ! ~ : resolutely to these basic purposes. :CD: I ! , ,_, Both in the stages of preparation and the later stages of execu­ , ....... ·····: l"" ''"*i! :i1: : :~: I 1 I 1 I I I 1 •'~ · oo' 2 ' 1 1 I I I I I 1 tion any censorship based on these essentials is certain to en­ 'Q.' : g: : : : : L. .-' ..•,-• Q.. e: 9:. : e : : a: : ~ : counter attack, open and by stealth, from some within and some : : ~ : : ~ : : ~ ~--- -~ ~ : : ~: .~: outside of the government. There are those who believe sincerely, ~ : : a : : : : i : : •z• .. I I I f 1 1 I : I : I : 1 I I 0 1 ~ : but without counting the ultimate cost, that the censor should : ~: : : 1 operate according to a broader totalitarian philosophy; that he ····' ~::.-.: ~:.-:.~ ~:::~ !~ i ' should undertake to suppress criticism of the government and ····' : ! ! j: ! : ! ! ! ! a i i !. ... .! ~ ~ : conceal governmental blunders and delinquencies; that he should : ! i : g: ! =: make fishing expeditions into private affairs having no possible : z : : : : : connection with the war; that he should withhold from the Ameri- L. .i L. .. .! L .... ! 1 can people, for policy reasons, information known to be available to the enemy; in short, that he should commit in the name of security all of the errors which have helped often enough hereto­ fore to discredit censorships, to divorce their procedures com­ I pletely from the dictates of common sense, and in the end to weaken greatly their effectivenes. Long before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the military Unless and until the day comes when the form of our govern­ services had been planning for wartime censorship of interna­ ment is to be altered materially, it will not be wise or expedient tional communications. The Army undertook to develop a pro­ even in time of national peril to undertake thus to reduce Ameri­ gram for censoring mails entering and leaving the United States, can citizens to a state of intellectual slavery. The task of prose­ and the Navy arranged for censorship of cable, radiotelegraph, cuting the war would be hindered, rather than helped, by any and radiotelephone circuits. such attempt. On September 2, 1939, upon the President's declaration of a Censorship of press and radio deserves special mention, for it state of national emergency, Commander (later Captain) H. K. is precisely here that the entire operation faces its greatest Fenn, USN, was assigned to give his full attention to planning for danger of fatal error and consequent disruption. No more deli­ cable censorship. This officer, who later became Chief Cable cate or explosive an undertaking could be imagined. Within this Censor in the Office of Censorship, established the practice of area the censor must tread circumspectly, indeed, amid the appre­ bringing into active service selected Naval Reserve officers, so hensions and suspicions of a publishing industry which guards that they might be schooled, in advance, in the principles and oper­ almost fanatically its hard-won freedom from government domi­ ations of censorship. By December, 1941, some 400 officers had nation, and a broadcasting industry which yearns mightily to passed through the training course. A few already had been attain similar liberties. This censorship ought to be voluntary, assigned to the Naval Districts to begin recruiting censorship as a matter of principle, in a free country; and as a matter of staffs of their own, mainly reserve officers and enlisted men, with practicality, experience has shown that a voluntary censorship, a few civilians. They established suitable quarters for censor­ with all its undeniable weaknesses, can be fully as effective as ship stations, made advance arrangements for furniture and sup­ such compulsory systems as those of Britain and Canada, where plies, perfected agreements with the communications companies, many flagrant violations have gone unpunished because public and in several instances even began actual monitoring, on a trial sentiment would not support punishment. basis, of cable, radiotelegraph, and radiotelephone traffic. So In this general field,-and let it be repeated that it is here that complete were these arrangements that cable censorship went all censorship is most likely to make or destroy itself,-there is into action within an hour after the Pearl Harbor bombing. only one reasonable rule. Censorship of the dissemination of The Army moved more slowly. Late in 1940, it was decided public information must hold unceasingly, day in and day out, to that special attention should be given to cens9rship by Military the single purpose of keeping dangerous information from the Intelligence, and Major (later Brigadier General) W. Preston enemy. Editorial opinions and criticisms never can be brought Corderman, USA, was detailed to investigate. He brought in as under government restraint, and ought not to be, so long as our his assistant a reserve officer, Captain (later Colonel) Gilbert C. present form of government endures; and any censorial excursion Jacobus, who in January, 1941, was dispatched to Bermuda to into that realm would most certainly destroy the respect and con­ make a study of British Censorship operations there. fidence of the censored and lead to collapse of the entire structure. Later, with the rank of Colonel, Corderman served for a year as the first Chief Postal Censor in the Office of Censorship. Cap­ BYRON PRICE, Director tain Jacobus became his deputy during the early days and subse­ NOVEMBER 15, 1945.
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