Evening star., 1939-09-26
Economic Blockade
Held One Of Britain S
Strongest Weapons
Effects May Be Slow,
But 1t Works Surely
On Enemy's Morale
By H. ]. ]. SARGENT,

LONDON, Sept. 26 (NA.NA).-
The smoke of war has to q large
extent obscured some Of the unspec-
tacular but nonetheless extremely
useful methods of the allies to fight
the enemy. One Of the chief of
these weapons against Germany has
already functioned with good effects,
though its achievements do not cap
ture the public eye like military,
naval and air action. The work
have in mind is that carried on by
the ministry Of economic warfare,
which has just been set up. 1t con-
trolls all measures included under
the term popularity known as block
ade. It's effects may be slow, but
they can be more deadly than those
of any other weapon.
The British Navy is carrying out
it's old role of cutting of the enemy's
supplies on the high seas, whether
going to him directly or through
neutral ports. Most of the German
merchant ships abroad were safe
and useless-in neutral ports when
war started, SO that new German
oversee supplies are coming in neu-
trail ships, and mostly to neutral
ports.
Early Cargoes Easy to Spot.
Many of the cargoes stopped by
the British fleet in the early days
of the war were consigned openly to
Germany before war broke out and
could therefore be readily identified
as contraband. From now onward,
however, great care will be neces-
sary to distinguish between bona
fide neutral trade and contraband
goods destined under various guises
for Germany. All ships proceeding
to European ports from which their
cargoes could be forwarded to Ger
many are being examined to see if
they carry contraband.
In accordance with British and
American practice in the last war
contraband can be said to include
anything designed to be used by
the enemy for carrying on the war.
The case of each ship is examined
In London on its merits, and any
suspected contraband is seized, and
unless released later it comes before
the Prize Court, which applies the
established rules of International
law. The proceedings are public, and
interested parties have the fullest
opportunity of presenting their
cases.
The general objective of British
economic warfare is to interfere as
much as possible with German
trade while interfering as little as
possible with bona flde neutral trade.
The British contraband control is
not intended to injure trade nor
mally carried on between neutrals.
To this end, priority of examina-
tion is given to the ships which call
voluntarily at the control bases
for the English Channel, Weymouth
is the port which can best deal
with them-in contrast to those
which are brought in by the fleet.
Owners Urged to Cooperate.
Neutral shipowners have been
advised to provide themselves with
spare copies of their ships mani
fest, giving an easily understood
account of the cargo-or better still,
to send a copy of the manifest in
advance. Stlipowners who thus
cooperate with the British authori-
ties are less likely to be subject to
delays. The control bases communi-
cate very quickly with London,
The harvest for the first week of war
has shown how effective are the
methods used. The figures of inter-
cepted cargoes have been published
officially. Seized contraband con-
signed to Germany included %, 500
tons of petroleum, 26,350 tons of
iron ore, 3,40O tons of haematite
(iron) ore, 1900 tons of manganese
ore. 1900 tons of wood pulp and
5000 tons of pebble phosphate.