Dead Letters: Censorship and subversion in New Zealand 19141920

Description

In 1918, a miner on the run from the military wrote a letter to his sweetheart. Two months later he was in jail. Like millions of others, his letter had been steamed open by a team of censors shrouded in secrecy. Using their confiscated mail as a starting point, Dead Letters reveals the remarkable stories of people caught in the web of wartime surveillance. Among them were a feisty German-born socialist, an affectionate Irish nationalist, a love-struck miner, an aspiring Maxim Gorky, and two mystical dairy farmers with a poetic bent. Military censorship within New Zealand meant that their letters were stopped, confiscated, and filed away, sealed and unread for over 100 years. Until now. Epigraph Contents Maps of New Zealand Postal Routes, 1917 Foreword • Charlotte Macdonald Abbreviations Part I: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea 1 A scheme of censorship Part II: Against King and Country 2 The only Germans among the worms 3 To hell with them all 4 For dearer the grave or the prison 5 The camp in the bush Part III: Spies, Sex and Subversion 6 Might is right 7 My Dear Doctor 8 Yours for Direct Action 9 Patriotism will not pay my bills 10 A new form of government Postscript Acknowledgements Notes Bibliography Index