File No. 300.115/10614
The Consul General at London ( Skinner ) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 6.]
Sir: Referring to the Department’s several cabled instructions in regard to the shortage of hosiery needles in the United States, and the inability of British manufacturers to supply the American trade, I have the honor to report, as a matter of information, that a number of parcels of needles of German origin have been placed in the prize court, and the Procurator General has invariably declined to release the goods or to permit the consignees to obtain possession of them by purchase, as in the case of some other classes of merchandise. In view of the well-known circumstances that needles of German origin have been imported without much difficulty for British trade since the beginning of the war, and to meet a shortage which is as acute in this country as in the United States, the attitude of the prize court is at least interesting.
I have [etc.]