matters.

In order that you may have such information as the department has on
the subjects referred to in your letter, I will take them up seriatim.

_(1) Freedom of communication by submarine cables versus censored
communication by wireless._

The reason that wireless messages and cable messages require different
treatment by a neutral Government is as follows:

Communication by wireless cannot be interrupted by a belligerent. With
a submarine cable it is otherwise. The possibility of cutting the
cable exists, and if a belligerent possesses naval superiority the
cable is cut, as was the German cable near the Azores by one of
Germany's enemies, and as was the British cable near Fanning Island by
a German naval force. Since a cable is subject to hostile attack, the
responsibility falls upon the belligerent, and not upon the neutral,
to prevent cable communication.

A more important reason, however, at least from the point of view of a
neutral Government, is that messages sent out from a wireless station
in neutral territory may be received by belligerent warships on the
high seas. If these messages, whether plain or in cipher, direct the
movements of warships or convey to them information as to the location
of an enemy's public or private vessels, the neutral territory becomes
a base of naval operations, to permit which would be essentially
unneutral.

As a wireless message can be received by all stations and vessels
within a given radius, every message in cipher, whatever its intended
destination, must be censored, otherwise military information may be
sent to warships off the coast of a neutral. It is manifest that a
submarine cable is incapable of becoming a means of direct
communication with a warship on the high seas; hence its use cannot,
as a rule, make neutral territory a base for the direction of naval
operations.

_(2) Censorship of mails and in some cases repeated destruction of
American letters on neutral vessels._

As to the censorship of mails, Germany, as well as Great Britain, has
pursued this course in regard to private letters falling into their
hands. The unquestioned right to adopt a measure of this sort makes
objection to it inadvisable.

It has been asserted that American mail on board of Dutch steamers has
been repeatedly destroyed. No evidence to this effect has been filed
with the Government, and therefore no representations have been made.
Until such a case is presented in concrete