27 December 1943: Wershof to Stone

The Americans did not seem to share the philosophy that diplomatic communications should be exempt from censorship. In a letter to Thomas Stone, Max Wershof describes an incident of an American censor’s interference with a call placed by an official in the Brazilian legation in Ottawa, made to the Foreign Office in Rio de Janeiro. While the call originated in Canada, and was bound for South America, it was routed through the United States, where American censors picked it up. While Portuguese was a permitted language of communication under American regulations, calls in Portuguese were not permitted when no translators were available.

Perhaps in an effort to afford the Brazilians some measure of privacy, Stone had suggested that Wershof speak to Byron Price to inform him that all calls to South America were screened by Canadian censors. Thus, any American censorship on these calls would be a “duplication of effort.” Wershof demurred and suggested that conversation would be better coming from Biggar. And though Wershof believed diplomatic calls coming from Canada through the United States to a third country should still be exempt from censorship, he also noted that:

“…it is up to the South American Governments to persuade the United States Government to grant this privilege. We have a hard enough time getting reasonable censorship privileges out of the U.S. Government for the Canadian Legation and the Canadian Consulate General in New York, without starting to fight the battle of Latin American Governments.”