May 9.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1799

Importation of Goods into the United States.

Customs Department,
Wellington, 24th April, 1918.

ADVERTING to the notice dated 27th February last, idem, a copy of a statement of the Bureau of Imports of the War Trade Board of the United States, concerning the purpose and effect of the Proclamation prohibiting the importation except under license of all imports into that country, is appended.

This Department has been advised that all licenses previously issued for the importation into the United States of the undermentioned goods became null and void if shipment thereunder was not made on or before the 14th April, 1918. (Shipment as required by this ruling actually consisted of the actual delivery of the goods licensed to the carrier on through export and [or] ocean bill of lading. In order to satisfy the War Trade Board and Customs authorities that shipment under the import license relied upon had been made within the prescribed time the importers will be required to present a copy of the carrier’s through export and [or] export bill of lading showing delivery to the carrier on or before the 14th April of the goods licensed. The said bill of lading must bear the endorsement of the United States Consul at the point of export shipment. In any case where delivery was made to the carrier after the 12th April, or where the circumstances indicate shipment after the 14th April, failure to obtain the Consul’s endorsement as required will be treated as a circumstance demanding thorough explanation, and will probably entail considerable delay in the delivery of the goods to the importer, if such delivery is permitted at all.)

Agricultural implements; animals, live, except for breeding purposes; art works; asbestos; beads and ornaments; blacking and all preparations for cleaning and polishing shoes; manufactures of bone and horn; all breadstuffs, except wheat and wheat-flour, including imports from Europe; broom-corn; candlepitch, palm, and other vegetable stearin; cars, carriages, and other vehicles; all acids, muriate of ammonia; all coal-tar distillates except synthetic indigo, fusel-oil, or amyllic alcohol; citrate of lime; all salts of soda, except nitrate of soda and cyanide of soda; sumac, ground or unground; chicory, root, raw or roasted; clocks and watches, and parts thereof; cocoa and chocolate, prepared or manufactured; manufactures of cotton; cryolite; dials; dice; draughts, chessmen, billiard-balls, poker-chips; eggs of poultry; electric lamps; explosives, except fulminates and gunpowder; feathers, natural and artificial; manure; salts; manufactures of vegetable fibres and textile grasses except jute; fish-hooks, rods and reels, artificial bait; fluor-spar; all fruits except pineapples and bananas; all nuts except coconuts and products thereof; gelatine and manufactures thereof, including all from Europe; gold and silver manufactures, including jewellery; sulphur-oil or olive-roots; grease; hay; honey; hops; infusorial and diatomaceous earth and Tripoli mantles for gas-burners; matches, friction and lucifer; fresh meats; meerschaum, crude or manufactured; musical instruments and parts thereof; nickel; oil-cake; oilcloth and linoleum, for floors; all expressed vegetable oils from Europe only; lemon-oil; non-mineral paints and varnishes; pencils and pencil-leads; penholders and pens; perfumery; cosmetics and toilet preparations; phonographs, gramophones, graphaphones, and parts thereof; photographic goods; pipes and smokers’ articles; plants, trees, shrubs, and vines; plates, electrotype, stereotype, and lithographic engravings; plumbago or graphite phytes; rennets; artificial silk and manufactures thereof; soap; malt; liquors; wines; other beverages; candy and confectionery; tar and pitch of wood; toys; umbrellas; parasols; sunshades, and sticks for; beans and lentils; dried peas; all vegetables except beans and lentils and peas, either in their natural state or prepared or preserved; vinegar; whalebone, unmanufactured; manufactures of wool; manufactures of hair of camel, goat, and alpaca; zinc.

Bills of lading for the undermentioned goods should be made out to the order of, or endorsed to, the representative body indicated for account of the real consignee:—

Tin, tin-ore, concentrates, ferro alloys, and kindred ores and metals: To the order of the American Iron and Steel Association.

Rubber, all kinds: To the order of the Rubber Association of America.

Wool (including woollen skins), jute, flax, cotton, and mica: To the order of the Textile Alliance of New York.

Diamonds: To the order of the American Diamond Committee.

Plumbago: To the order of the Plumbago Graphite Association, New York.

Tanning materials, leather, hides, and skins (other than woollen and haired skins consignable to Textile Alliance): To the order of the Tanners’ Council of America.

Lacs (all kinds): To the order of the United States Shellac Importers’ Association.

ARTHUR M. MYERS,
Minister of Customs.

STATEMENT OF THE BUREAU OF IMPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES WAR TRADE BOARD CONCERNING THE PURPOSE AND EFFECT OF THE PRESIDENT’S PROCLAMATION OF 14TH FEBRUARY, 1918.

As a further step towards placing the full force of our industrial strength behind our offensive against the enemy, the President has proclaimed that on and after the 16th February, 1918, a license is required for all imports as well as all exports.

Since the 28th November last import licenses have been required for many of the basic raw materials, and importers are already familiar with the very simple method of procuring them. The added inconvenience of applying for licenses for all importations will be negligible in comparison with the advantages secured. The question of what does or does not require a license, with its accompanying uncertainty and delay, will be eliminated. The benefits to be derived from this license system are numerous, one of the most obvious being that the present control over the distribution and use of raw materials which are now imported under license will be extended to all materials, so that at any time a shortage exists or appears imminent in any imported material the supply thereof may be directed to the uses most vital to our martial requirements.

But the most effective manner in which this weapon of import control may be used against the enemy is the prevention of trading with firms of pro-enemy character. No commerce, of course, exists between the United States and the countries with which we are at war. Unfortunately, however, largely due to the foresightedness of our enemy in long years of preparation, individuals and firms are established throughout the world whose controlling motive is the advancement of German interests. Still more unfortunate is the fact that such agencies have existed in our own land. To stamp out all activities among such agencies, and to safeguard our well-intentioned citizens from dealing with them, we must proceed with the utmost promptness and vigor. The forms of activity of these concerns and the subtle and intricate methods pursued by them are innumerable, but are invariably directed, either by furnishing information, smuggling supplies through the blockade, providing credits, or hoarding for post-war purposes, to giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Before the advent of the United States into the war Great Britain and her Allies found it necessary to surround the importation into this country of commodities controlled by them with various safeguards in the form of guarantees and agreements procured from importers. Now that we have entered the war, and established our export and import control, our Allies have very willingly relinquished to us the duty of seeing that the imports coming forward to us are used by our own legitimate purposes, and are not re-exported to pro-German firms in neutral countries to trickle through, either physically or in the form of credits, to Germany, or accumulated to foster Germany’s commerce after the war.

To accomplish these results the War Trade Board, through its Bureau of Imports, has adopted certain regulations in connection with the importation of many of these raw materials, to which it is the duty of every patriotic American citizen to give complete and whole-hearted support.

Organizations have been voluntarily created in many of the trades, such as rubber, wool, jute, tin, &c., to act as consignees when required, and to perform other duties in connection with importations, under and by direction of the War Trade Board.

Every effort will be made to administer these regulations with the slightest possible detriment to legitimate business interests, but when it is considered that the transmittal of a few pounds of rubber or copper to Germany may cost the lives of scores of our men at the front, and that each day’s supply of wool, or food, or money, to the enemy means another day’s war with its accompanying toll of lives, the very thought of hesitancy or weakness is inconceivable. The policy will be “safety first” for our soldiers, regardless of every other consideration. Persons and firms in this country as well as abroad who before our entrance into the war had little sympathy with the war-time commercial safeguards of the Allies must be taught that these are now matters of the first importance to this country, and violators of present