Page 77 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER FOUR

At the end of June 1915, Cadorna notified the Presidency of the Council of Ministers via telegraph
that 37 Austrian priests had been arrested, two of whom had been released, 30 interned, 4 still
under investigation, and one was held hostage. They were suspected of carrying out “propaganda
and espionage activities to our damage, aiding and abetting the enemy, and spreading alarming
news among soldiers” .
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4.4 THE SEVERAL FUNCTIONS OF THE INTELLIGENCE OFFICE

The censorshIP servIce

One of the Intelligence Office’ missions since the outbreak of the conflict was the mail censorship
applied, directly or in cooperation with other state structures, to both the Army and within the
country at larges. Telephone, telegraphic and especially press censorships were entrusted to other
Government bodies.
Two Law Decrees were approved one day before the declaration of war to enforce censorship
on telegraphs, telephones, radiotelegraphs, and mail. In extraordinary circumstances, such as
the impending conflict, the Government was authorised to suspend or limit at will the services
mentioned above and to employ Army and Navy officers, or civilian officials, for opening private
correspondence, to ascertain the presence of information concerning the armed forces, national
military preparation and defence plans, and seize it, as needed .
37
Correspondence of military personnel serving in the war zone, directed to people residing in any
other part of the State, was controlled at a special office in Treviso. The opportunity to strengthen
such censorship, especially for the correspondence originating at the front, had already emerged
in the first weeks of war, since the soldiers frequently took on pessimistic tones in describing their
life condition to the families, which could adversely affect the public spirit .
38
However, the Auxiliary Concentration Office in Treviso, which started its operations on 10 June
1915, still found operation difficulties in the middle of 1916 due to the lack of suitable personnel
and infrastructure . To facilitate its work, I Office recommended the Headquarters of the armies
39
to promote the diffusion of postcards instead of letters “because the former can be analysed with
immediacy, while the latter requires more time, and their forwarding suffers significant delays” .
40
“A veiled censorship” on mail sent to the troops by ordinary citizens, “especially on mail coming
from places where subversive parties prevail in number” was also recommended . Thus, in
41
October 1915, at the Bologna office - i.e., where this type of correspondence was collected - a
limited censorship began to be applied .
42
Finally, in November 1915, the Intelligence Office delegated the regulating and administrative
aspects of censorship on military mail to the General Superintendence and maintained the enforcing
powers for itself .
43

36 Supreme Headquarters - Secretariat of the Chief of Staff, telegram n.411-G, 28 June 1915, AUSSME, Series E-2.
37 Decree no.688, 23 May 1915 concerned telegraph, telephone, and radiotelegraphic censorship. Decree no 689, 23 May
1915 concerned postal censorship.
38 Higher Director of Military Post, Letter no.235-S, June 1915, AUSSME, Series M7.
39 Letter no.15777, 27 July 1916, op. cit. Instead of checking all the mail sent from the front, the Treviso Office could only
control 2% of it.
40 Intelligence and Coding Office, Circular letter no.3767, 18 August 1915, AUSSME, Series F-17.
41 Intelligence Office, Letter no.4179, 26 August 1915, AUSSME, Series F-1.
42 Intelligence Office, Letter no.587, 29 September 1915, ibidem.
43 Intelligence Office, Letter no.8496, 20 November 1915, AUSSME, ibidem.

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