New Britain herald., 1916-07-25

warded by the Lapland on Feb. 25;
 the mails on the Costerdijk were for forwarded, part by the Cameronia,
 sailing March 4, and part by the
 Cedric, sailing March 8.
 Tt was not until March 22 that
 note was received from the United
 States Am mbassador, inclosing a copy
 of a letter from the MacNiff Horti-
 cultural Company and stating that
 the company anticipated difficulties of
 this kind in regard to their shipments,
 the first of which was due to arrive
 about the beginning of March.
 Complaint Too Late.
 The possibility of preventing such losses to neutrals was considered by his majesty's government immediate ly on receipt of the ambassadors note and on April 14 a reply was sent to his excellency, offering to place special censorship staff at ports of call in order to examine separate mail bags labelled shipping documents by the same ship without unloading them with the rest of the mail. It will therefore be seen that when specific complaints of this kind are made ac- tion has been taken imme ediately to prevent damage to neutral interests, and the loss sustained by the Mac Mfr Horticultural company, which his maJesty's government much regrets, was due to the specific complaint not having req Ched his maiesty's govern ment in time to enable them to apply the new system to this firms ship ments.
 Standard Underground Cable Com pany, Pittsburgh-The government of the United States appear to insinuate that the delay on this cOmpany's mail to Christiania was directly connected with the fact that British competitor obtained a contract for which that had been rendering. His majestys government are astonished that such an insinuation should be made. They are the more surprised at it as the complaint from the Un- derground Cable Company clearly appears not even to have been ade- quately examined.
 '"The contracts alluded to are pre- those recently made by the Christiania municipal electric works l Out of seven contracts placed by these ] works, of which his majesty's govern ! ment has record, five were allowed i 70 American firms and only two to l British firms, and, in spite of the 1 extremely dangerous nature of con- 5ignments of copper to Scandinavia. T view of the German attempts to ob- ain that article through contiguous his majestys government 1 vent out of their way to take all pos 'ible steps to facilitate the dispatch Ty,i+ or | he goods necessary to execute the American contracts, including 205, 900 kilograms of electrolytic copper wire, 0,S00 kilograms of electrolytic cop ger, 1000 kilograms of copper tubes, md 10,800 kilograms of copper sheets nd bars.
 Quote Dates Against Complaint.
 "Of the two orders placed with British firms one small one was placed n Feb. ?, 1916, and the other for a arger amount on April 8, 1916 In his latter case the call for tenders 7as issued on Feb. 14 the date speci- ed for closing being noon on March o, and the British firm rendered on 1arch 17. As the first direct inward- Ound mails from the United States or Scandinavia on ships passing ] round the nOrth Of scotland rem ,'Ee0 l or examinations by the British cen orship were hose on the Hellig Clav, which called at Kirkwau on March S. it is difficult to understand the 1 ssertion made by the United States , government that owing to the deten- ion by the British censorship of the Standard Underground Cable Com 'any's tender a contract was awarded o a British competitor, and in the bsence of further details it can only ,e concluded that the American tender never passed through the hands of the British cen or or that it related to a contract which was not awarded to a British firm.
 Money Order Lists.-This com ,laint must be left for consideration n the final reply of the allied govern nents, as it involves questions of prin- ip1e on which consultation between