Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement 2, The World War, Volume II

Cable Censorship Regulations No. 6 ¹

July 25, 1917

1. No cablegrams will be accepted for transmission to Germany or to any country assisting Germany in the prosecution of the war.

2. Language, (a) Transatlantic cablegrams must be in plain English or French, or in Italian in the case of telegrams originating in or destined to Italian territory (whether originating in the United States or in transit through), except that authorized codes (see par. 3) may be used in cablegrams to countries cooperating with the United States in the prosecution of the war.

(b) Cablegrams to Central and South America, to the West Indies, and to points reached by the Pacific routes, must be written in plain English, French, or Spanish, or in one of these languages translated into one of the codes enumerated in paragraph 3.

3. Codes. The following authorized codes may be used, conditioned on their acceptability under the censorship regulations in effect in the foreign countries concerned. The name of the code shall be written in the check and will be signaled free:

1. A.B.C., fifth.

2. Scott’s tenth edition.

3. Western Union (not including five-letter edition).

4. Lieber’s (not including five-letter edition).

5. Bentley’s complete phrase code (not including the oil and mining supplements).

6. Broomhall’s imperial combination code.

7. Broomhall’s imperial combination code, rubber edition.

8. Meyer’s Atlantic cotton code, thirty-ninth edition.

9. Riverside code, fifth edition.

10. A.Z. (not authorized on cablegrams to British possessions).

4. Addresses. The address must be complete, but code addresses properly registered before July 1, 1914, may be used on transatlantic cablegrams, and code addresses properly registered before January 1, 1917, may be used on all cablegrams not passing over transatlantic cables.

5. Signatures. All cablegrams must be signed; in the case of an individual, by the surname at least; in the case of a firm or organization, by the surname of a responsible member of the firm or officer of the organization, when satisfactory information regarding him is on file with the censor; or by an abbreviated signature of two or more words from the incorporated title when understandable (examples: “Pacific Mail” for the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., “Second National” for the Second National Bank, or “Studebaker Corporation” for the Studebaker Corporation of America). The full name of sender must appear on space provided on blank. Code addresses as signatures are not permitted.

6. Address and signature in full. Every sender of a cablegram must place his full name and address on the face of the cablegram, and likewise the full name and address of the addressee. In so far as it relates to authorized code addresses and to signatures, this information will not be considered a part of the cablegram, but is for the information of censorship.

7. Vessel’s name required. If the message refers to a shipment or to a voyage, the name of the vessel concerned must appear on the message, but will not be considered a part of the cablegram.

8. Cablegrams without text will not be passed.

9. Single-word cablegrams will be passed when censor is satisfied of plain English word or when a single code word translates into two or more words understandable to the censor.

10. Suppressions, delays, etc. All cablegrams are accepted at sender’s risk, and may be stopped, delayed, or otherwise dealt with at the discretion of the censor and without notice to the senders. No information respecting the transmission, delivery, or other disposal of any cablegram shall be given by paid service, and requests made by mail must be addressed to the telegraph or cable companies and must be passed upon by the censor. Telegraphic or post acknowledgments of the receipt (P.C. or P.C.P. services) are suspended to all countries.

11. Information to senders. The cable company will notify the station of origin by free service when a message does not conform to the censorship regulations. Any explanation of a test word or words, etc., required by the censor from the sender in the United States or Canada shall be obtained by a collect message from the censor to the sender and by a paid reply from the sender of the cablegram.

12. Coded cablegrams filed directly at cable offices where a cable censor is stationed, as at New York, Key West, Galveston, and San Francisco, should be accompanied by a translation, and if it is certified by some responsible member of a firm it will tend to expedite the transmission of the message.

13. Figures. Unrelated numbers or code words which translate into unrelated numbers are prohibited, except as set out in paragraph 14.

14. Serial numbering of cablegrams will be permitted under the following conditions: Cablegrams may be numbered from 1 to 999, inclusive, in plain figures or authorized code translating into plain figures, but the serial number must begin with number 1 on the first-day of each month. At option of the sender, two additional figures may be added to serial number, indicating the day of the month, and these figures may be in plain figures or in authorized code translating into figures, but on the first nine days of the month the numeral shall be preceded by a zero. The serial number when used shall be the last word in the message preceding the signature. Nothing herein requires any cablegrams to have a serial number.

15. Test word, (a) In order to safeguard the interests of responsible individuals and organizations transmitting money by cable, the use of test words will be permitted, and to relieve them of the necessity for furnishing copies of their systems of test words affidavit will be accepted to cover use of such test words.

(b) Organizations and individuals desiring to use test words to authenticate their messages and to act as a check on the amount of money transmitted must furnish to the chief cable censor, Navy Department, Washington, an affidavit sworn to before a properly constituted authority covering substantially the following allegations:

The test word will be the first word in the body of the message. Such test word will have no other meaning or use than that of authenticating the amount of money transmitted or that of preventing fraud by unauthorized payments of money.

(c) A test word is permitted in any cablegram addressed to or sent by a bank, firm, or other organization which has qualified by complying with the regulations herein prescribed.

(d) Foreign firms are privileged to qualify if they so desire, but even though not qualified they may use test words when addressing qualified banks, firms, or other organizations.

(e) Qualification of an American firm, bank, or other organization will include its foreign branches.

16. Commodity. As a general rule the commodity should be included in the message. It may be omitted at the discretion of the censor if it appears in the translation filed by the sender in a manner satisfactory to the censor. If it is omitted in a message arriving from a foreign source, then the censor, if he thinks it expedient, may demand the commodity from the addressee, as proposed in paragraph 11.

17. Prohibits. In addition to the other above regulations, the following are prohibited:

(a) Military information.

(b) Aid to the enemy.

(c) Information of all transocean movements of vessels.

(d) Private codes.

(e) Cablegrams obscure and not understandable to the censor.

18. Strict conformity with the above instructions is required by United States censorship, but will not insure the passage of messages by foreign censorship.

1. The Official Bulletin, Washington, July 25, 1917 (Vol. 1, No. 64), p. 3. Regulations issued by the Director of Naval Communications, to become effective upon establishment of censorship over Atlantic cables; see following telegram. Previous regulations, superseded by these, not printed.