Evening star., 1946-08-04
Ship-ControI System,
British War Measure,
Inks Trading Nations
By John A. ThoIe
Foreign Correspondent of The stor end
the Chieooo Dolly News


BARCELONA, Spain, Aug. s.
After getting a permit to leave one
country and visa to enter another,
nothing irks most travellers so much
as being told that they must clear
it with the British" before they can
depart.
British officials in various coun-
tries have been trying. without con-
spicuous success in recent months,
to explain why they are continuing
the wartime 'navicert" regulations
on shipping.
The navicert is simply permit
from the British for certain
passenger or cargo or ship to go
from one place to another. The
system was established during the
war when the Allies were clamping
q blockade around the Axis.
1t insured that neutral ships could
not be carrying any cargoes to Ger
man hands if the British could
help it.
Spanish, Portuguese Protest.
Spanish and Portuguese govern
ment leaders and shipping inter-
ests have been most active in pro-
testing the continuation of British
control of the seas. But outraged
walls also have been heard from
shippers in out-of -the-way spots in
the republics Of Central America.
Part Of the heat was taken off when
the restrictions were eased recently,
as far as Portugal was concerned
But the British hand continues to
be felt strongly in busy Spanish
ports like this.
The case presented against the
navicert is that the war is over and
that wartime blockade measures
should be eliminated. Business and
government leaders in the countries
affected assert that it is crippling
their efforts toward domestic re-
covery to be told what they can
buy abroad, where they can buy it
and how much they can have.
The system obviously has inher-
ent dangers if it is continued long
enough and carried far enough.
However, top Allied leaders, Amer
lean as we'll as British. apparently
are in agreement that the time has
not yet come to abandon navicerts.
Helps Control German Aliens.
For one thing, navicerts presuma-
bly, are keeping bottled up in Spain
and Portugal some 1900 German
aliens whom the Allied Control
Commission very much wants to see
back in Germany. So far they have
either managed to elude Allied dis
covery, or repatriation arrangements
for them have not been completed
with the governments of the coun-
tries in which they have sought
sanctuary.
Without navicerts it would be
theoretically possible for them to
skip out the back door of Europe
and make their way to some South
American country, out of reach of
Allied hands. Some undoubtedly
have managed to take this route.
So closely is the navicert system
applied, however, that even British
6Ilu S1il1CI O1uIldlS- vi
diplomatic passports, have to pre-
sent their documents to British
passport control officials and be
duly navicerted before they can set
out.
The bulk of the Germans-some
2,000-are in Spain, where the going
has been slow in negotiations with
the Spanish government over their
repatriation. Some. also, are unlo-
catable since Spain is a country
where 1t is very easy for them to
disappear, especially with the aid
of pro-German friends.
Another advantage the British
claim for the navicert system is
that it gives some assurance that
a fair proportion of exports and
imports will be allotted to those
countries which need them most.
It also prevents German -owned
or German sympathizing firms
abroad from leaping back in busi-
ness now to resume unrestricted op-
erations with no penalty for war
time sins.