ABSTRACT
Postal and telegraphic communication was the area in which the most systematic and publicly acknowledged censorship was established. It involved setting up a network of censorship offices around the country and the employment of thousands of civil servants. The formal censorship can be usefully divided into two types: external censorship relating to material being sent out of the country, and internal censorship - relating to material circulating within. Whereas internal censorship was mostly concerned with letters, parcels, telegrams etc., the external censorship was also responsible for examining newspapers, news agency reports and books being sent out of the country. The censorship of opinion in material leaving the country was maintained for most of the war, and it provoked occasional rows in Parliament. In November 1942, for instance, Emmanuel Shinwell suggested that reports of the proceedings of the House of Commons were being censored and that criticism of the government was being cut out.
