DECLASSIFIED Authority I THE DIRECTOR OF CENSORSHIP WASHINGTON June 20 19 The Honorable Francis Biddle Attorney General of the United States Washington D C My dear'hr Attorney General Upon receipt today of your letter of June 19 enclosing the memorandum from Mr Mitchell I telephoned your office and made an appointment to see you on Tuesday next the earliest date upon which you would be available The situation regarding the revised newspaper Code is this After clearance with all of the interested Government departments including the De partment of Justice this Code has been printed and was just on the point of distribution when your letter arrived I have given instructions that its distribution be held up pending my talk with you on the three points mentioned We did not include in the revision a paragraph saying that corresponde ants who have been in combat zones must submit resulting articles to the Army or Navy before publication Such a stipulation seemed unnecessary for two reasons First of all when a correspondent makes a commitment to the Army or Navy it seems superfluous to state that he must honor his commitment Secondly it has been our inrariable practice under such circumstances to refer the matter immediately to the Army or Navy for decision The trouble in the Chicago Tribune case was that the Navy neglected to extract such a commitment from the Tribune correspondent Our practice is so well established however that even so we would have referred the dispatch in question to the Navy had it been submitted to us We did so refer other dispatches written by the same correspondent The new Code contains a stipulation against publishing information about the identity or location of enemy naval or merchant vessels in any waters except as officially announced am not sure of the intent or implication of the final paragraph of your letter Your suggestion appeals to me as most important however since it might indicate that we are crossing the bridge from voluntary to involuntary censorship in which case I suggest that the entire Code would have to take a completely different form Naturally I will be happy to discuss all of these questions with you and I am writing this merely for the information of your office during the interim Sincerely yours - i 1 yaw e Waf es Byron rice w I A ssion Direct-or NOV 3 0 45 Copy to DIVIoS'weigur some The Postmaster General                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu