The semi-weekly messenger., 1907-10-25
SEIZED At NORFOLK
Shipment Was Valued at 8. 900 and
Was Consigned to British-Ameri-
can Tobacco Company of Great
Britain-Action Followed Confer
enee Between Officials Last Week.
Statement From Washington.


meRt of leaf tobacco and cigaret -es
said 20 be valued al $1,000 from Duc-
| ham, n. c., consigned TO the British
American Tobacco Company, OF Great
Britain, has been attached by the gov
ernmeRt here and is now being held
by the customs authorities. The ac-
ton was brought, following a cInfer-
ence here last week between Collector
of Customs Hughes, United States Dis
trict Attorney L. L. Lewis, and iep-
resentative from the department OF JUS
tice at Washington.
Washington, October 21.-The depart
ment of justice today issued the fol-
lowing statement concerning the TO-
bacDo seizure at Norfolk this after
noon:
THE collector of customs at Norfolk,
Virginia, under the direction OF the
Secretary OF the Treasury at the IN
stance Of the attorney general, ant in
conjunction with the United States
attorney for the eastern district Of Vlr-
ginia has seized 176 cases containln5
$3.50, go cigarettes, valued at $7,272.5O
which were in transit from factories OF
the British-American Tobacco Com
pany, limited, located at Petersburg,
Virginia, and Durham, North Carolina,
to New York, and foreign counties.
This seizure was made under SIC
ton 6 OF the Sherman antitrust law,
which reads as follows:
contract or by the combination o: pur-
suant to any conspiracy (and oeing
the subject thereof mentioned in sec
ton one OF this act, and being in the
course of transportation from one
state to another or to a foreign cOun-
try shall be presented to the United
States and may be seized and con-
demned by like proceedings as those
provided by Law for the forfeiture,
seizure and condemnation Of property
imported into the United States con-
r2ry to law.
The information on seizure will be
fed today at Richmond and will state
the cause of seizure TO be that the
property was owned under a contract
entered into in 1901 by two American
Tobacco Companies, that is to say. the
American Tobacco Company and the
American Cigar Company, with three
great English concerns. namely: The
Imperial Tobacco Company, of Great
Britain and ireland, limited; The Cs-
dens, limited and the British-American
Tobacco Company, limited, in which
contracts it was agreed substantially
that the American and English conpa-
MES should not compete with one an
other in the territories given to each.
In this contract the corporations lanI-
ed in effect divided up the world among
them, 80 far as the tobacco business
was concerned. The information also
contains counts charging that the to-
bacco was owned by a combination
in restraint of trade" which is
mere variation of the language of the
Charge stating the causes of the for
feiture
''This is preceding in rem that is to
say, against the property itself, ano
not against any individuals. II the
owRers Of the property want to make
defense they must coue before the
court and claim the property, and file
their written pleadings denying the
charges set out in the information,
and show that the unlawful combina-
tion in restraint of trade charged in
the information does not in fact exist.
This is the first time that proceed
ings have been taken to enforce This
section of the law