ARMOUR’S CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 May 1921, Page 2

ARMOUR’S CASE.

AN AMERICAN PROTEST. REASONS FOR REFUSING LICENSE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, May 28. The following telegram has been received from the American Consul-Gen-eral iby Sir F. H. D. Bell: ‘‘The Department of State, Washington, cables instructing me to ascertain the reason for the refusal of a license to Armour and Company of Australasia at Christchurch to export, and to point out that American capital established the . business in accordance with the New Zealand laws, and that the present action appears to be arbitrary and discriminatory.” Sir Francis Bell has telegraphed the following reply: “I shall !be obliged if you will inform the American Department of -State, firstly, that New Zealand, acting in regard to Armour ajid Company, has been largely influenced by the result of the American inquiry into and report upon the dealings of the company in relation to the American Meat Trust; secondly, that no difficulty is placed in the way of Armour and Company exporting to America for American use the meat now in freeezing store; thirdly, that a license to export such meat to London markets is refused; fourthly, that full warning was given Armour and Company and the Meat Trust by the New Zealand Parliament in 1918, when it was enacted that every meat exporter must have a license to export. It was then made clear that the Act was intended to prevent operations by the Meat Trust; fifthly, Armour and Company could not obtain a license to export, and devised a method of purch asing sheep and freezing them in works of companies licensed to export; sixthly, this Government will not allow evasion of New Zealand laws; seventhly, Armour and Company now ask for a license to export this meat because it is theirs in private freezing stores,, and they ask for a license now which would not have been granted before the purchases, as they well knew; eighthly, the action of the Government is not an arbitrary one, and I regret that it should be considered proper to adopt such an expression with regard to it; ninthly, the business of the company was established with the object of establishing the Meat Trust in New Zealand in defiance of the Act of 1918.—(Signed) Francis Bell.”