OCR Text |
Show ENGLAND 10 SEIZE CARG0ESJ3F GRAIN BRITISH FLEET WILL TREAT FOODSUFFS DESTINED FOR GERMANY AS CONTRABAND. Step Taken by Englishmen Following Announcement That German Government Gov-ernment Had Confiscated All the Grain and Flour. Washington Ambassador Page at London cabled the state department on Tuesday that the British fleet had been ordered to treat cargoes of grain and flour destined for Germany or Austria as conditional contraband, subject to seizure and confiscation This step, the ambassador explained, explain-ed, followed the announcement that the German government had decreed confiscation of all grain and flour to conserve the nation's food supply. Since the publication of the German Ger-man order the ambassador here, Count von Bernstorff, personally has assured the American government that no foodstuffs imported from the United States or enutral countries would be subject to seizure and press dispatches dis-patches have announced the issuance of a modifying decree making such exemptions by the German government. govern-ment. Ambassador Page said the British government had informed hitn that because the steamship Wilhelmina, now bound from New York to Hamburg Ham-burg with grain and other food, had sailed before the issuance of the German Ger-man decree, an exception would be made in her case. The vessel would be seized, it was said, but she would be released, and her cargo purchased at invoice price by the British government. Warning was given, however, that other shipments ship-ments hereafter of like character when destined for Germany directly or indirectly would be seized, as well as the vessels carrying them, without compensation being paid. |