BRITISH BLOCKADE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 August 1940, Page 6

BRITISH BLOCKADE

NEW AND EFFECTIVE CHECK. SYSTEM OF SHIPS’ WARRANTS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 31. The system of “ships' warrants." details of which were given in the House of Commons yesterday, is thought in informed London circles to place a very effective check on the possibilities of Germany and Italy obtaining overseas trade. Given to a shipowner in return for his undertaking always to use ship's navicerts, it enables his ships to use British facilities for bunkering, repairs, insurance and similar services. Without a ship's warrant he is unable to obtain these, and should he break the undertaking to use ship's navicerts jre forfeits the warrants, fo the whole of his line till the end of the war. The object of this provision is deter neutral owners from using with navicerts while employing others 1 of the same line in blockade-running. Ships not carrying navicerted cargo will be liable to seizure on the spot by British patrols, making control bases no longer necessary. German progapanda has recently suggested that the British Government would give exemption for certain cargoes, and there has been specific cases of German offers to supply the United States with bulbs and seeds, stating that Britain would give exemption to these goods. It can authoritatively be stated that exemption for individual cargoes will only be granted in those rare cases where the goods are unobtainable elsewhere and are of great importance to the economic life of the country of destination. There is every determination to use British sea power to prevent exports from enemy countries or those under enemy control from reaching their destination overseas.