CONTRABAND CONTROL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 84, 6 November 1939, Page 2

CONTRABAND CONTROL

INSPECTION PROCEDURE

WORK OF THE NAVY

A statement has been issued describing the procedure at Weymouth • and other contraband bases, where , neutral ships' cargoes are examined. These ships anchor for anything from six hours to as much as a fortnight in a few difficult cases, while the Navy makes sure that they will not slip up the Channel with cargo for which German armament factories are waiting. ''There has been a daily average of 20 neutral ships in Weymouth since the war began. A total of 74 carrying 513,000 tons of cargo have been examined; 99,300 tons has been qp seized, including consignments of iron ore, fuel oil, petrol, maganese ore. and wheat. "It is the same story at the two contraband bases, at in the Orkneys and the Downs the Kent coast, except that even more is done at these places. Weymouth is a voluntary base, yet day and night neutral ships signal that they are outside and wait for boarding parties to examine their holds and scrutinise their papers. There is always a friendlj r greeting for ~ the British naval man, and as often, as not useful scraps of information about more things than cargoes are nicked up before the ship continues^

her voyage. "Deliberate obstruction has been almost unknown, and the Weymouth base still relishes memories of the skipper who could not show quickly enough his manifest, of the notorious ?0 bags of coffee consigned personally to Hitler from Aden.

"Tf contraband has to be unloaded the ship is usually sent to a more convenier>* port for discharge. rfops under armed guard if that shouUl be necessary, but mostly the crews regard this as a formality. throe bases have closed Mm yorth Sea to unsearched ships, The Navy, through its intelligence, lopcj before a shin is expect°d in British waters what she is carrying, and usually where her is 2r>ing. That the Navy has in keening from Germany much of what she needs is nroved by statistics. That in so doing it has not antagonised neutral countries is proved by the goodwill accompanying these thorough searches."