EXAMINATION OF U.S. MAILS

Evening Star, Issue 16224, 20 September 1916, Page 6

EXAMINATION OF U.S. MAILS

United Stales regarding the examination of mads is ( S ay s the ' Daily Chronicle ') a striking example of the way in which larre t"nera statements sometimes shrink wlien the nto °^r h f th6y *? baS6d are "oked into. ihe American Jvote of May 24 ob]ected o our treatment of the mails on neutral ships not only on grounds of principle but on the ground that in practice it did serious and unreasonable damage to American business. Pew instances were given to substantiate this, but those that were have now been scrutinised, and the results of their scrutiny are contained in the Memorandum. They are certainly rather remarkable tor instance, the American Government alleged, that the delay of a Pittsburg company s mail to Norway put it out of the running for an electrical contract for which it tendered, which was awarded to a British company. Tho statement was, perhaps the most awkward-looking in the Note. ' But when the facts and dates are tested it appears without foundation. The electrical contract* in question wore seven; five went to American firms, two to British. But the dates at which tenders for the latter had to be in were anterior to those of the first mails held up by us on that route. Therefore, whatever else our interference did, it did not actually, as suggested, prejudice the American firm in competition with British. This instance i» a fair sample of what the Memorandum is able to show, and it certainly suggests that on this subject the American State Department has not been at quite its ordinary pains to make sure of its facts.