The Cordova daily times., 1920-08-09
SHIPPING BOARD VESSELS
 DEFRAUDED LARGE AMOUNT
 IN TRADE ON RIVER PLATE

BUENOS AIRES, Aug. g (by Asso- ciated Press) The United States Shipping Board has been defrauded of many thousands of dollars through practices which amout to systematic fleecing' of shipping board vessels in the, River Plate trade, according to reports to the board by Captain c. l.. Garden, special representative of the shipping board emergency fleet in Buenos Aires.
 Captain Garden, accompanied by Captain of Engineers, l.. c. Farwell, arrived here a month ago to take charge and protect the boards inter ests. When I arrived here," he said to the Associated Press correspond ent, ship cEandlers, repairmen and others connected with the shipping industry seem to be in a general agreement to mulct the shipping board vessels to the limit.
 '''The shipping board is rich," they said, i've will get what we can" Accordingly the board was charged for things not received, and over charged for things received until it became 50 obvious tEat I was ordered to this port to take charge. In re- ceiving my orders l was told that while the board appreciated the fact that expenses of all sorts were high in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, still. it felt that there must be something wrong when. their vessels paid such prices for instance as $4 a pound for butter.
 Tt seems that the practice was, when a shipping board vessel ap- peared in the roads and signalled it's desire to enter, for those who had hopes of selling the vessels SUD- plies to prepare for plucking of the golden goose. The result was that when the vessel cleared bills were presented to the steamship agents, and promptly paid, since it was ship ping board money, for every con- ceivable item at prices based on noth- ing except a desire to obtain easy money.
 Our arrival put a quick and effec- fiU0 Ctnn f0 oil fhic I,ov all shipping board vessels calling at this port, report directly to us, we alone have the right to authorize purchases of supplies or expenditures for repairs. All repairs at present must be made according to specifi- cation and must have my signature before it will be paid, and the result of this has been a saving of as much as 50 per cent on many items. Con- ditions formerly were so bad that I have even heard that in some cases food was thrown overheard in order to create a shortage that purchases could be made"
 During the first four weeks of the supervision provided by the new ar rangement it was officially estimated that a saving for the shipping board, which means for the United States of $50,000 for food alone and $25,000 for repairs was made. As a result of this campaign at least one arrest is expected when a cer- tain ship arrives in New York.
 There are 23 lines under the ship ping board which have vessels call ing at ports in this jurisdiction.
 There are on an average P vessels on hand at all times. The average cost for maintaining these is from $1,5O0 to $2,000 each per day. Be- fore the war an American vessel on the River Plate was a curiosity
 Since the shipping board had no offices of it's own to take charge of it's vessels in ports throughout the world,' continued Captain Garden, "it was usually necessary to entrust the care of the ships to established agencies. Many of these steamship agents had already been for years the representatives of foreign ships and possibly competing lines. The result has been that in many cases Amer ican vessels have been held back while other ships were given the pref erence: causing the expenses of the ships to mount up through port charges and lost time.
 Tn all River Plate ports, losses from this source have been very great as we'll as those through over-charges for supplies, repairs and