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Show oo WILLRETAUATE Washington, Aug. 31. Retaliatory legislation In support of diplomatic protests against the allies' interference interfer-ence with American trade, has been decided upon as a general policy of the government This was stated officially offi-cially today with the explanation that provisions of the shipping bill and the pending revenue bill were first steps. Up to now a high official pointed out, the United States has relied solely sole-ly on the sense of justice of the belligerent bel-ligerent nations, but that, despite the principle of which this government has denounced as Illegal in a sweeping sweep-ing note, trade pressure and discrimination discrimi-nation has been Increasing exasper-atlngly. exasper-atlngly. Consequently the government has decided' after discussions between Secretary Lansing and members of congress to empower the president to employ commercial retaliation. This course would have been taken some time ago, it was intimated, except that all plans of retaliation proposed were obviously illegal. The amendment to the revenue bill would give the president discretionary discretion-ary power to prohibit the importation of products which cannot be imported Into foreign countries form the United States. This is aimed directly at the British embargo restricting the shipment ship-ment of American tobacco. The amendment to the shipping bil gives the secretary of the treasury discretionary power to refuse clearance clear-ance papers to all ships refusing to take American merchandise on other grounds than the lack of space. This amendment Is designed to reach allied vessels which refuse to accept the goods of American firms on the British Brit-ish commercial blacklist. Passage of the shipping amendment has greatly disturbed and allies' embassies em-bassies hero and predictions were freely free-ly made that thiB country might be embarking on a trade war that would be disastrous to all concerned. Just what form of retaliation might bo-expected bo-expected has not been forecast It is believed that American ammunition ammu-nition trade with the allies which might be stopped by act of congress furnishes a sufficiently powerful weapon for use as a last resort |
