ECONOMIC BOYCOTT.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1918, Page 7

ECONOMIC BOYCOTT.

HOW GERMANY IS TRYING TO OVERCOME IT. Customs Department, Wellington, March loth, 1918. 'Sir,—The Hon. Arthur 11, Myers, Minister of Customs, has directed me to hand to the I'ress the enclosed translation of a circular emanating from the "Deutsche lnteressenwinke"( Hints of Interest to Germans) of Philadelphia. The Minister would be pleased if you could see your way to give publicity to the matter. M. MOXTGIMERY, Comptroller of Customs. TRANSLATION. Philadelphia,, June 22nd, 1917. You are doubtless acquainted with the law that has just 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 in neutral territory and belonging to Germans, even when such orders concern America and are destined solely to augment domestic trade. It is superfluous to emphasise the insensate character of this law, and to remark that Trance to feed herself and maintain her strength lias 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 the situation thus created. It is necessary for a German enterprise which desires lo complete a transaction to get into communication with a neutral house of business which will order the poods in France, and will naturally lake care not to mention the name of the German subjects interested in the matter. Care will be taken that the parcel bears no exterior mark to betrny their participation in the transaction. Tt is still more indispensable to keep carefully and entirely hidden the very existence'of the German houses from which the order actually comes, seeing (hat, the French purveyor has no right to fill the order unless'he has every reason to believe that I'ic 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 transition would entail on him. For reasons of the 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 the final destination of the uoo'h is with a German enterprise. On the other side, with a view to avoiding the vexatious hesitations and delays lint nvHif- arise out of considerations in regard to credit, it is recommended to indicate at first sight, references in France 1o the purveyor who receives the order, or better 'still to let him have at. the same time as the order the approximate amount of the purchase money an I expenses, unless of course the intermediary in whose name the contract is passed is already known to this purveyor.

And in concluding \vp must insist on this capital point, it will lie for tho ■future, and oven when peace lias been made, the patriot: ■ duty of every Herman to do no business except through merchants of German origin at Marseilles, Havre, and in general all French ports. Respectfully yours, Section of German Economic Initiative,