Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1916-08-13
British System of Blockade:
Description of Its Operation

which is presided over by Sir Samue
Evans, and the goods are released
condemned, or dealt with as the cour
may deem just.
81 have already told you that the
desire of the British government is tC
carry out this blockade with as littlt
delay or inconvenience to ncutrals a.
is possible, and | will now give you
some of the arrangements made to in
sure this:
"1 Guarantees by importers.
agreements have been made with
representative association of MGR
chants in neutral countries under
which they undertake that goods con
signed to them will not be exported tC
Germany, nor be used in the manu-
facture of goods which are for export
to Germany.
"The first of these was The Neither
lands Oversee Trust, which was SO
successful that similar associations
were formed in other countries.
"In Denmark, the Danish Mer-
chants guild.
"In Switzerland, the Societe Sur
| VelllanCe suisse.
| Goods can now be exported from
this country practically under license
only, and such licenses are usually
granted if the goods are consigned to
| these associations.
"(2) Agreements with shipping
lines.
engagements have been made with
many shipping lines under which
| their ships are allowed to go forward
even if they have contraband on
board or are carrying goods which
our authorities suspect are for the
enemy, on their undertaking to re-
turn such goods to this country for
the prize court or to retain them in
neutral country until after the war.
Shippers Should Use "White Ships"
"And in addition to this:
"(3) Bunker coal from any port in
| the British empire is refused to ncu-
| trail ships unless they comply with
| certain conditions which insure that
the goods they carry do not go to the
enemy.
Both these classes of ships are
called white Ships and they are a
large and increasing number, and
! most of the leading lines have made
such arrangements.
| Il would strongly advise any of
| you when shipping goods to see that
| the ship is a white ship
| eff a ship is not a white ship
| there is Of course a presumption that
it is or may be carrying suspected
goods, and thus it may be delayed
mad you suffer the suspicion attaching
to other peoples goods.
| go Skinner scheme.
"This is a scheme which was sug-
gested by Mr.. Skinner, the American
ul-general in London.
at is this: A department has been
! opened in the British embassy at
| Washington to which an American
| exporter can go and give particulars
| of the nature and amount OF the
| goods he desires to expert, and also
| the name of the consignee. The de-
partment will at once cable here to
the contraband committee who will
cable him whether his goods would
pass the blockade or not, and thus
he can decide whether to ship them.
If he ships the goods the papers are
marked accordingly, and some Amer
| lean lines will now only take goods
which have passed the Skinner
scheme.
"(5) Rationing:
"It has been found that since the
war broke out certain neutral cOun-
tries have been importing vastly
increased amount of certain goods
beyond their pre-war and normal re-
quirements, and unless they were for
merly importing large quantities OF
these goods from Germany and Aus
tria, there is an overwhelming pre-
sumption that they were imported
for the purpose of re-expOrt to Ger
many; and there is no doubt that this
was done on large scale.
i ITO avoid this the system of ration
ing has been adopted under which
the import of given article into a
neutral country is limited to the
amount of it's true domestic require
ments, it is very fair system, al
lowing as it does any neutral to car
| ny on its own legitimate trade and to
supply it's own wants.
"You will note thus that it may
happen that when you apply to the
war trade department for license
to export certain articles to neutral
countries it may be refused not be-
cause there is any doubt in regard to
your consignee, but for the reason
that the country has already been
supplied with the rationed amount OF
such goods.
Would Not Injure Neutr,ls.
II would point out to you that the
net result of all these arrangements
instituted by the British government
SO that the blockade of Germany will
interfere as little as possible with
neutrals, are so framed that if any
exporter has goods held up or put in
the prize court he has only himself
to blame; and if anyone doing bust
ness with these neutral countries will
only comply with the requirements
have outlined to you today he runs
practically no risk of his goods being
( held up, with all the consequent loss
of time and money.
| 1.-The British government is OF
course determined to enforce the
blockade with absolute rigidness and