106 WAREHOUSES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
bonded system. In discussing with a local banker the system which 
he pursued in making advances upon wine or liquors in bond he told 
me of his plan of making certain always that his security was intact. 
el If my debtor’s stock,” he said, “ rested in the ordinary way among 
other people’s in the cellar it would be easy for him to obtain access 
to it without my knowledge. The custom-house can not be expected 
to take note of my lien on his goods. A dishonest man might leave 
me a row of empty barrels. It is my practice therefore to put a 
simple fence of wire netting about my debtor’s barrels, supplied 
with a wire door, of which I have the key. When I have done this, 
I rest secure that no undue evaporation will take place.” 
I should have been glad to send particulars of the control and man 
agement of the bonded warehouses for tobacco, from the point of 
view of both owners and users. These warehouses, however, are 
in a few strong hands, and the proprietors have courteously declined 
to extend any information whatever, nor have their customers— 
the great local manufacturers—proved more communicative. 
With these warehouses, as with the bonded cellars, the procedure 
of the custom-house officials, the oversight of the authorities, the 
technical details governing the incoming and the outgoing of the 
commodity, are similar in essentials to our own practice. 
IjORiN A. Lathrop, Consul. 
Bristol, England, September 24-, 1904. 
HULL. 
(From United States Consul Hamm, Hull, England.) 
The Northeastern Railway Company at its Hull docks has pro 
vided lock-up sheds for transit purposes. I send herewith a pam 
phlet“ issued by that company which shows the charges for use of 
these sheds and other information about the warehousing facilities of 
this port. 
Particulars of the dimensions and original cost of warehouses are 
not available. They are owned by the Northeastern Railway Com 
pany, which alone does the work in connection with goods brought to 
the warehouse. 
The services rendered by the company in connection with the ware 
housing are shown in the accompanying rate book, the charges being 
the same as on goods of the same description passing over the com 
pany’s quays and not using the transit sheds. 
The chief classes of goods stored are wines, tea, coffee, sugar, cocoa, 
tobacco, etc. Usually goods are left only a few days. All nation 
alities are treated alike by the administrators of the warehouses, but 
1 am unable to state to what extent Americans make use of the sheds. 
The transit sheds are in the care and supervision of the customs offi 
cials. The goods are brought to and removed from the warehouse 
usually by the shipowner. 
Walter C. Hamm, Consul. 
Hull, England, August 4,1904.. 
»Ou file in the Bureau of Statistics, Department of Commerce and Labor.