UNITED STATES POST OFFICE MAKES ORDER

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6804, 7 January 1929, Page 8

UNITED STATES POST OFFICE MAKES ORDER

Only to Rescind it CARRYING OF MAILS BY CUNARD LINERS FLAGRANT DISCRIMINATION. United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph —Copyright. NEW YORK, Jan. 4. The Post Office department has issued an order withdrawing from three Cunaiti line ships all mail except that specifically addressed to such ships_ for delivery in Europe, Africa and 'Western Asia. , As a result, the great volume of mail usually transported by Berengaria, Ansonia and Andania, against which the ruling was made, will be lost to the Cunard line, because few persons customarily specify the ship ou which the mail is to be carried. Moreover, from three to six days will bo added to the time of delivery of the mail which would have been carried by Berengaria when she sails at midnight to-night, because the order has transferred tho mail to the White Star liner Baltic, a slower vessel, which will sail to-morrow morning.

The Post Office department announced to-day that it might direct all European mail to the favour of American ships, but it denied that the controversy with the Cunard line hati caused this action. Retaliation Against European Countries OFFICIAL’S THREAT. WASHINGTON. Jan. 4. Mr. Irving-Glovcr, second assistant Postmaster-General, announced to-day that the order limiting tho amount of mail to be carried by the three Cunard lime vessels had been rescinded. Mr. Glover telephoned to the Aew York Postmaster requesting him to lift the embargo. He said that he had issued the order as a temporary measure, because tbe Berengaria was late yi arriving here, and the other two ships were extremely slow-. Mr. Glover renewed tho charge that foreign countries were discriminating against American ship? in mail shipments; but he stated that the department was nor. at present planning retaliatory measures. However* it was prepared to go into the question ot changing the route of its entire foreign moil, in order to give American vessels a large share of the trade, if the European discrimination continued.

A cable message from ftew lork published on December 29 stated: What is regarded in some quarters as tantamount to a shipping war between Britain and tho United States for the South American trade took a more serious turn to-day, with the publication bv the Cunard line or a statement giving a hint ot possible legal action against the United States Shipping board. The statement was in tho form of a letter to Mr. -L. F O’Connor, chairman of the Shipping board, from Mr. Robert Blake, associate director of the Cunard line.