TRADE CONTROL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 March 1940, Page 5

TRADE CONTROL

ALLIED BELLIGERENT RIGHTS SEIZURE OF ENEMY GOODS. RELATIONS WITH NEUTRALS. 'By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, February 28. The Minister of Economic Warfare, Mr Cross, stated in the House of Commons today that the whole of the trade of the countries concerned in the war was covered by various war trade agreements. “We are entitled to seize any contraband goods suspected of going to an enemy destination,” he said. "We cannot detain imports to neutral countries if we are assured that they are not going to Germany. We have had, therefore, to obtain guarantees that such imports will be used exclusively for the domestic requirements of the countries concerned.

“Regarding goods produced in neutral countries, it is usually stipulated that goods of purely domestic origin may be exported to both belligerents on the peace time level, and as these are goods which have not passed through our patrols, we have not the same control as we have of their overseas imports. “It must be remembered that the maintenance of such exports is vital to the economic life of the neutral countries concerned, and in many cases we ourselves benefit from such exports to at least as great, if not greater, degree than Germany. The Minister said in conclusion: “There is nothing in these war trade agreements to prevent us from exercising our full belligerent rights in respect of any consignments in regard to which we have evidence of enemy destination.”

It is announced that on February 27 there were 27 neutral ships in the British contraband control bases, of' which 15 had been there for five days, or less. During the week ended February 24 the Contraband Committee considered the cargoes of 114 ships which had arrived since February 17 and 19 outstanding cargoes from the previous week. In 57 cases the entire cargoes were released. Seventy-seven cases were dealt with under the system of advance copy manifests, and in 42 such cases the vessels were released subject to formal checking of the original manifests.