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Whereas the censorship of Bermuda’s terminal mail began at the outset of the war, transit mail on neutral ships was not censored until later in 1939 and mail carried by the Pan American Airways flying boats until 18 January 1940 when 112 bags of mail were removed from PAA American Clipper. That mail included securities, packages of diamonds and large money transfers from Germany – one alone of $300,000. With its first-class harbour and recently-opened flying boat base at Darrell’s Island, Bermuda proved the ideal location for the censorship of trans-Atlantic mail.

Both the United States and Germany were very unhappy with Great Britain’s interference with their mail. On 27 January 1940, Berlin Radio blasted Bermuda, claiming that it was rightly called the ‘Island of Devils’ and that this ‘home of pirates, buccaneers and thieves now lives up to its vile reputation by pirating mail’. Meanwhile the U.S. Government decided to stop PAA trans-Atlantic flights from landing in Bermuda altogether.

By August 1940 the U.S. Government reversed course and decided ‘there would be compensating advantages from mail censorship at Bermuda’. Additional censors would soon arrive and the Imperial Censorship Detachment was established at the Inverurie Hotel, close to the Darrell’s Island airport. The censorship of transit mail, examination of travellers’ possessions and control of contraband was now fully operational and neutral shipping subject to examination.

Facilities at the Inverurie Hotel were soon outgrown and on 22 September 1940, coincidentally with the arrival of 200 more examiners from Great Britain, the Imperial Censorship Detachment moved operations to the more spacious Princess Hotel in Hamilton, which was ideally located to receive and dispatch transit mail that arrived by sea or air.

In all, 1,500 censors and ‘censorettes’ were in Bermuda during the four years of operation. Only twenty-four would stay behind when the Imperial Censorship Detachment left Bermuda in 1944. Most were women who stayed to marry, a few were over sixty and decided to retire in Bermuda, five were employed by the Bermuda Government, two by the United States Navy and two remained to assist with Prize Court proceedings.

Bermuda Censorship could examine 200,000 letters per day and could submit 15,000 to clinical testing by special examiners looking for microdots and secret ink messages. Some of the information gained from letters led to the successful prosecution of the Ludwig spy ring and the conviction of the notorious pro-German propagandist George Viereck, especially when FBI activities were still restricted by American neutrality. Through its Contraband Control Bermuda also caused considerable damage to the German economy and war effort. And all of this took place at the Princess Hotel!