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The Royal Navy in Jamaica.

Section II. The Royal Navy in World War I.

With the outbreak of there was intense naval activity in the early days , especially
when intercepted ships, such as the Bethania were brought to the island . Later ships
of H Force also visited Jamaica . H Force was the former Fourth Cruiser Squadron with
additional ships - many other parts of the Empire, such as HMAS Sydney from Australia -
or from Allies - such as the French Conde . H Force were to search out enemy surface
raiders and to establish a strategic blockade of the Central Powers by cutting off
imports from the Western hemisphere .

Until 1917 the United States was a neutral power and then large numbers of its
population were only first or second generation immigrants, many had come from Central
Power territories and favoured their cause . These large numbers of potential
sympathizers coupled with a network of German consulates and other offices in the New
World raised in the Allies ' minds a real fear of espionage - although i n those days
the easiest way of passing information was by post or cable f or the average person.
As the war progressed this fear on the Allied side increased, especially with the
growing threat of the U-Boat menace , so that censorship was crucial to the Allies and
played a vital role in the war effort.

As mentioned, Jamaica was a convenient base for H Force and other cruisers to hunt
for surface raiders , many were converted merc hant liners which had previously been
been employed by the Germans on the North Atlantic run to carry immigrants to the New
World . Later in the war the introduction of the convoy system led to additional shore
establishments - and personnel - increasing the numbers of the Navy .
Because of security measures it is difficult to establish the names of many of the
Naval shore bases, but it may be assumed that mail from such sources and mail landed
from naval ship s were handled according to established wartime naval procedures . It
is believed that no Fleet Mail Office was located there but a Naval Base Post Office
must have operated there, probably long before war was declared as was a Naval
Censorship Service .

Naval ships down to destroyer level were equipped with Censorship handstamps as were
the shore based establishments - the stone frigates .