The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-25

Secretary of State of the United States to his Majesty's Ambassador at Wash fngton on May "A regarding the exam ination of mails on neutral ships will be communicated to the government of the United States as soon as the arguments contained in that note have been fully considered by the al- lied governments in consultation. Since. however, the note contains in
 Paragraph certain specific instances affecting the conduct of the work of
 examination by the British censorship,
 his Majestys government desires to
 deal with these instances in advance and in detail.
 "In that paragraph allusion is made to a large number of complaints, of
 which no particulars are given. Only
 four specific instances of these conn plaints are cited, and they are put for ward in a form. which, in the ab- sence of any of the details which his Majestys government have repeatedly asked for as necessary to identify and trace the occurrences complained of, makes 1t difficult to investigate them. The following facts have, however, been ascertained in regard to them: "MacNiff Horticultural Company, New York-It is stated that the ship ping documents relating to perishable goods for this firm were removed from the New Amsterdam, Costerdijk, and Rotterdam. The malls on these three ships were removed for exam ination on Feb. 10, Feb. IT. and Feb. 26, respectively. The mails fom the New Amsterdam were forwarded again, part by the Cedric on Feb. IT, and part by the Lap1and on Feb. 25; the mails on the Costerdijk were for warded by the Lapland on Feb. 25; the malls from, the Rotterdam were forwarded, part by the Cameronia, sailing March 4, and part by the Ce- dric. sailing March 8.
 ''It was not until March 22 that a note was received from the United States Ambassador inclosing copy of letter from the MacNiff Horti- cultural Company. and stating that the company anticipated difficulties of this kind in regard to their ship ments, the first of which was due to arrive about the beginning of March. Complaint Came Too Late
 .'The possibility of preventing such losses to neutrals was consider ed by His Majesty's Government inn mediately on receipt of the Ambas- sador's note and on April IA re- ply was sent to His Excellency. offer ing to place special censorship staff at ports of call in order to texamine separate mail bags labelled shipping documents and to reforward such doc- uments by the same ship without un- loading them with the rest of the mail It will therefore be seen that when specific complaints of this kind are made action has been taken inn mediately to prevent damage to neu- tral interests, and the loss sustained by the MacNiff Horticultural Com pany, which his Majesty's Government much regret. was due to the specific complaint not having reached his Ma 1esty's Government in tirne to enable them to apply the new system to this firms shipments.
 standard Underground Gable Com pany, PittsbWghATheG 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 a British competi- tor obtained a contract for which that company had been rendering. His IMajesty's government are astonished that such an insinuation should be made. They are the more surprised atsit as the complaint from the Un- derground Cable, Company clearly ap- pears not even to have been ade- quately examined.
 ''rhe contracts alluded to are pre- sumably those recently made by the Christiania municipal electric works. Out of seven contracts placed by these works, of which his Majesty's Govern ment has record five were allowed to American firms and only two to Britt ish firms, and, in spite of the ex- tremely dangerous nature of consign- ments of copper to Scandinavia. In view of the German attempts to ob- tain that article through. contiguous countries, his Majesty's Government went out of their way to take all pos- sible steps to facilitate the dispatch from the United States to Norway of the goods necessary to execute the American contracts, including 205.o00 kilograEns of electrolytic copper wire, 10.sO0 kilograms of electrolytic cop- per. 12.oOo kilograms of copper tubes, and 10,S00 kilograms of cop per sheets and bars.
 Quote Dates Against Complaint
 "Of the two orders placed with Brit ish firms one small one was placed In Feb. 2, 1916, and the other for larger amount on April 8, 1916. In this lat ter case the call for tenders was issued on Feb. IA. the date specified for clos ing being noon on March 30, and the British firm rendered on March IT. As the first direct inward bound mails from the United States for Scandinavia on ships passing around the north Of Scotland removed for examination by the British censorship were those on the Hellig Olav, which called at Kirk wall on March 2S. it Is difficult to un- derstand the assertion made by the United States government that owmg to the detention by the British censor ship of the Standard Underground Ca ble Co.'s tender a contract was award ed to a British competitor, and in the absence of further details it can only be concluded that the American com
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