A few days before the declaration of war, but when it was imminent, the Postal Department held up a cablegram, in cipher, from the Imperial German Government to the chief officer in German New Guinea. Should the message be transmitted? Had the Commonwealth Government a right to stop a communication from a power, with which Great Britain was not at war, to its agent? But the transmission of the message might, in the existing circumstances, be embarrassing to the British Government. It might contain directions affecting the movement of German ships of war, or orders concerning the defence of New Guinea or Samoa. The Minister for Defence conferred with the Governor- General and the Attorney-General, and it was determined to send a cablegram to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, stating the facts, and to close the direct cable line from all other communications till a reply was received. This was immediately done, and within a few hours the reply came, consisting of one word: " Hold." The message was held.
Later:
One day I was rung up by the Prime Minister’s office and asked to call there. His secretary put in my hands a letter which Graebner had been fool enough to post to a friend in Germany. and whlch had been opened by the censor. I read only the first page, and handed it back disgusted; for it was a tissue of lies about his treatment here and about Australia generally. I said, “Shut him up,” and they did, as doubtless they would have done without a word from me. The worst of it was that poor Pringsheim had to share his fate.
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