THE GERMAN WAY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16167, 22 March 1918, Page 6

THE GERMAN WAY.

SURREPTITIOUS TRADING. Tho Minister of Customs has issued to the Press the following translation of a circular emanating from the "Deutsche liiteiTesenwinkc" (Hints of Interest to Germans), of Philadelphia: Philadelphia. June 22nd, 1917. You are doubtless acquainted with the law that has jusfc been passed in France, with a great flourish, by which long terms of imprisonment are threatened to traders who execute orders for the benefit of enterprises established m neutral territory and belonging to Germans, even when such orders concern America and are destined solely to augment domestic trade. It is superfluous to omphasiso the insensate character of this law and to remark that France, to feed herself and maintain her strength, has thought proper to cut off her own flesh. We propose solely to call your attention to the procedure that may be followed with a view to allowing our nationals to adapt their interests to tho situation thus created. It is necessary for a German enterprise which desires to complete a transaction to «et into communication with a neutral house of business which will order the goods to France, and will naturally take care not to mention the name of tho German subjects interested in the matter. Care will bo taker, that the parcel bears no exterior mark to betray their participation in the transaction. It is still more indispensable to keep carefully and entirely hidden the very existence of the German house, from which the order actually comes, seeing that the French purveyor has no right to fill the order unless he has every reason to believe that the final destination of the goods is the neutral house: if this purveyor is justified in fearing that the French authorities may afterwards accuse and convict him' of having participated in the establishment of the combination, he will of course refuse to run the formidable risk which under this head alone the transaction would entail on him. For reasons of -t.e same nature the neutral house by whose intervention the business is concluded must take care to effect delivery when the time is ripe in its own name. The essential point, in order to prevent any difficulty, is to keep it unknown in France that tho final destination of the goods is with a German enterprise. On tho other side, with a view to avoiding tho vexatious hesitations and delays that might arise out of consideration in regard to credit, it is recommended to indicate at first sight references in Franco to tho purveyor who receives the order, or, better still, to let him have at the same time as the order tho p.pproximato amount of the purchase money and expenses, unless of course the intermediary m whose name the contract is passed is already known to this purveyor. And, in concluding, we must insist on this capital poiut, it will bo for -Jio future, and even when peace has been mado, tho patriotic duty of every German to do no business'except through merchants of German origin at Marseilles, Havre, and in general aU I'rench ports. Respectfully yours, , Section of German Economic Initiative, (Signature illegible).