Cooperative Mail Control

Not always clear to U. S. citizens is the extent to which the U. S. and Great Britain are cooperating in Britain's war effort. A destroyer swap is one thing, collaboration on South American trade missions another. But many U. S. citizens remain unaware that virtually all U. S. mail going to or coming from Europe is held for examination at Bermuda.

Tip-off to the extent of the censorship was the brief announcement last week that Great Britain had sent 200 additional censors to its sunny Atlantic playground. Bedded in the tourist-barren Bermudiana Hotel, the new arrivals faced a prodigious job in catching up on the volume of accumulated U. S mail. Tons of it had piled up since last August when all American Export Line ships--although not allowed to carry passengers to or from Bermuda--had been going over 400 miles out of their way to allow Bermuda stevedores to come aboard and take off mailbags. There was also a great accumulation of Clipper-borne mail, for an unusual amount of "engine trouble" and "head winds" had forced Pan American Airways to stop at Bermuda on all of the last six westbound transatlantic crossings. As all U. S.-European mail is carried by the Export Line or by Pan American, Bermuda last week had become a definite mail control point--sometimes a bottleneck.

Press associations and other news and picture agencies have been hardest hit, for most of the material sent home this summer by U. S. correspondents in Europe has not reached its destination. Most people affected take the Bermuda mail control philosophically, being pretty well aware that Britain is not only protecting her own interests but funneling interesting information to Washington as well. Otherwise, why all the detours and head winds?

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