841.711/3151
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)
Lord Lothian9 called today, at his request. He merely wished to inquire whether the conversations regarding the censorship of the mails were coming to a definite outcome. I pointed out that it was practically impossible to bring them to a definite conclusion until they had indicated to us what their own policy was to be. I had heard that they were planning to establish a control station at Sydney, Nova Scotia. Lord Lothian said that this was their intent, but they [Page 86] were still hampered a little by the Canadians, who had been holding off any decision in the matter until after election. He hoped I would speak to the Canadian Minister about it.
I said that obviously we could hardly be in the position of suggesting any course of action in connection with control stations to the Canadian government, or any other belligerent. We had entered a general reservation against our ships or mails being taken into any control station. If there were to be a control station, presumably Sydney would be no worse than any other; but we obviously would not care to be in the position of suggesting it. I said I thought that Mr. Christie10 understood this; in any event, there was no reason why he should not be given as frank a statement of our views as we had already given the British government.
[Further correspondence on British mail censorship, not printed, deals with excessive delays and with details of censorship administration.]