No, no, nothing like the modern Government’s attitudes towwards the Internet, not at all…

[news.bbc.co.uk]

Britain’s 10 oldest state secrets have been opened to the public after a freedom of information request from the BBC.

The files, closed by the Home Office for 100 years, have been disclosed in advance at the National Archives, following the use of the new Freedom of Information Act.

[…]

7. ROW OVER TELEGRAM BETTING

Home Secretary Churchill was upset again – this time by the actions of the post office (GPO) in a debate in 1911 over the rights of the police to demand to see telegrams where they believed they were being used for betting transactions.

Liverpool’s chief constable of police had told the minister the law, and practice of the GPO in vehemently guarding access to telegrams, was unsatisfactory.

After the Home Office suggested it could consider issuing a warrant – if the GPO felt it necessary – the post office sought the advice of Crown lawyers, who in turn questioned whether any telegram should ever be disclosed.

Their failure to consult the Home Office before seeking legal advice sparked an angry response from Mr Churchill, although he did agree that in this specific case the telegrams should not be divulged.

Perhaps most interesting is the pithy file note added by a Whitehall official: “The GPO write as if they were a private business responsible only to the people for whom they do business, not a department of government responsible to the general public – see memo within!”