THE "BLACK LIST"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 228, 14 June 1918, Page 6

THE "BLACK LIST"

1 HOW IT OPERATES' SUPPRESSING THE GERMAN TRADER "Ono of the most important: weapons in the hands of the- Allies is the blockado supplcmei-.ted by the policy of tho .Statutory List," states tho recently-pub-lished report of the War Council for the year 1917. The licit referred to is the eo-called "Black List." "The chief object of the Statutory List is to avoid the anomaly of permitting trade between British subjects and firms of enemy natiouality and association, who were in many instances actively working against us by propaganda, supplying enemy vessels, or inciting to sabotage; and to shake their financial position or even force them into liquidation by withholding British gcods and facilities of all kinds from such firms.

"The policy has been amplified in many directions since its inception, but principally in two, viz:—

(1) The withholding of financial facilities from listed firms has led to the development of the financial blockade, which is now administered by a disrintb section of (he Ministry of Blockade.

(2) The sisnificanco of Iho term 'facilities' has been largely amplified, and a measure which was originally intended to entail the cutting off of listed firnin from direct relations with the United Kingdom and the Dominions only Ins been extended into an attempt to impose an almost complete embargo on their trade. "The chief method by which (his amplification of the policy has been effected has been the conclusion of a series of agreements with neutral shipping countries, by which the companies have undertaken to respect Ihe Statutory List in the same way as British companies. The weapon in thu background during suck negotiations has been the British control of bunker facilities and the powers wielded by the Inter-Allied Chartering Committee. A very considerable amount of success can fairly he claimed for the policy. In tin Far East, where, owing to our ex-territorial jurisdiction, Hie attack on enemy firms was begun some six months prior to the passage, of the Extension of Powers' Aci'i the German commercial establishments have been almost completely destroyed, and recent events will probably make it possible to comploto tho wor.\. "In South America, thanks largely to our agreements with American shipping companies, the financial stability of enemy firms in South America has been very generally shaken, and in some cases an enemy firm, such as Brauss, Mnhn and Co., at one time agents for the German Government in the Argentine, has been forced into liquidation. In some instances firms containing a certain, but not a predominant German interest have been forced to eliminate this interest. One example of. that is the Sociednd Exportudora, of Paraguay, which now carries on as a genuine neutral firm a large business in hides with the Allied Governments.

"In Europe the policy has been porfoTee so wholly merged in the general policy of the blockade that it is more difficult to estimate its results as an independent measure. But iu Spain, for which country the task of estimating results is easier than for those countries contiguous to Germany, the policy has worked admirably, and it is considered to have gono far to counteract the more insidious methods of German propaganda. In all countries the moral eit'ect of the list has been very pronounced, and a definite stigma is attached to inclusion iu the list, an effect which has naturally been accentuated with tho growing dislike of the world in general for German objects and methods."