COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 87

Delay and irregularity in shipments of American exports,—
No foreign customer will continue business with a seller who can
not deliver goods when stipulated. One of the quickest and surest
ways, therefore, to destroy the business of a rival is to subject his
goods to delay and irregularity in shipment. Scores of cases have
come to the attention of the Commission in which American exporters
have suffered irregularity and delay in shipments. Under the present
 abnormal conditions it is but natural that foreign shipowners
prefer to handle the goods of their own nationals, but similar disadvantages
 characterized our trade before the war. A few typical
instances are given herewith.
In the fall of 1918 a Marseille merchant said:

The steamship service between New Orleans and Marseille is defective.
 In fact, we receive only at long and irregular intervals the
lumber purchased at the beginning of the year. The number of vessels
 engaged in this trade is very limited and loaded with miscellaneous
 cargo, which occasions great complications as regards the
lumber receipts.

In 1914 the American consuls at Zanzibar and Mombasa were
emphasizing the fact that the east coast of Africa enjoyed direct
connections with Europe through six different steamship lines representing
 English, French, German, and Italian companies, while
there was no regular direct service from America, and that accordingly
 American goods suffered great delays in transshipment at European
 ports.
In October, 1913, the United States consul at Jerusalem said :

American exporters may hope to extend their trade in Palestine
whenever a direct steamship service from the United States becomes
available. * * * American boots and shoes are well liked here,
but dealers in placing trial orders have found deliveries unsatisfactory
 and the cost of transportation of small lots so high that the
goods could not compete with European makes.
Describing trade conditions in the Levant in 1914, the American
consul at Saloniki stated that American goods rarely came there
direct, but underwent much transshipment and rehandling, and that
sometimes three months were consumed in making deliveries which
should not require more than one month.
At the Commission’s public hearings in Boston, Mr. Woodward
Emery, of the Universal Winding Co., said :
There is another difficulty which has been met, and which has been
rather increasing of late, and that is preference in forwarding goods.
For instance, owing to the system which exists among the English
and the Germans, and their cooperation between their forwarding companies
 and financial powers, American goods sometimes get left and
have to take the next steamer. That, of course, creates dissatisfaction
on the part of the buyer, who is expecting the goods to arrive. To