Evening star., 1924-06-12
COPENHAGEN B00MS
AS SHIPPING CENTER
Danish Port Now Chief Ocean
Traffic Depot in Northern
Europe.
BY GEORGE r.. WTTTE.

Correspondence of The Star and Chicago Daily
News.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark. May IS
Since the outbreak of the world war,
almost ten years ago. Copenhagen has
become the foremost harbor Of north
ern Europe. Before the war Den
| marks capital was one of the most
! important shipping centers in Europe.
1t served as one of the principal dis
tributing points for the great Rus
ade of its principal rivals. Bremen
and Hamburg, resulted in an unprece-
dented boom for Copenhagen, boom
that has continued ever since.
The fact that Herbert Hoover chose
this city as the distributing center
for the supplies of the American re-
lief administration during the famine
shows how highly this Danish port
rates in the opinion of men in big
! business.
Small Charges Made.
| Since the breaking up of the Rus
sian empire and the creation of FIVE
new states on the Baltic-not to men
| ton the free state of Danzig-the
| free port of Copenhagen has done a
much larger business than 1T ever did
before. By making the conditions
under which goods can be sent from
the United States, for instance, TO the
Baltic states and Russia as ATTRACTIVE
as possible the free port OF Copen.
ha gen has won a very large snare OF
the business with the new countries.
A prospectus issued by the free port
authorities states the matter as toI-
lows: ,+.r;rs the
harbor of Copenhagen the tree port
| is. so to speak, American territoty'
| In the free port goods can pc us
charged, stored and transshippeo
| without the payment of any GUY. So
customs authorities examine and de
! Law and add extra charges TO the
goods in Transmission. Finally, the
| mort is almost entirely fyee from the
usual dues and fees which Welgn &c
heavily on shipping elsewhere a
ships entering are required to pay
only a nominal pierage due
For that reason it is not surprising
that the free port, the area OF when
has been doubled in the last ten
| work is we'll under way to add an
other row Of piers.
Latest Methods Employed.
Under the guidance Of Capt. ]. F,
Bergsoe, general manager of the free
port. | made the rounds of the ware
| houses. offices. quays. grain elevators
| and piers and found things to be
humming everywhere. For instance
there was one freighter from Amer
| lea which had just arrived with a
| cargo of -four and had to be unloaded
| within twenty-four hours in order to
make room for another boat due the
| following day. Both men and ma
chinery were working overtime un-
| loading the freightef and reloading a
| large part of the cargo on small
Baltic Sea vessels which the follow
| ing day would start out for Iibau
Riga, Reval and other ports. Amer
icar efficiency seemed to prevail
everywhere.
| Ali the warehouses I visited were
| jammed full, including the two silos
| each one of which holds 1900 tons
/ Of grain. The largest shed, recently
completed. covers an area of 50,0ot
square feet.
| There are several large sheds in the
free port to accommodate American 4
| motor cars, thousands OF which ars
| shipped via Copenhagen every year
| Warehouses and sheds are rented te
private companies for short and long
periods, but goods may be stored In
| the freeport warehouses at rates
| varying from 26 cents TO $1.31 a ton 6
month Goods are stored free oi
charge for the first eight days, in.
GLIDING the first day OF discharge
Most of the warehouses are equipped
/ with electric cranes, this type being
preferred by the Copenhagen author.
| tiles as more speedy than the motor
| cranes.