British authorities have refused to grant navicerts for French purchases of American tobacco, states the Washington correspondent of the wening Standard."
There is known to bea great shortage of tobacco in Germany, where the civilian population are now almost -entirely deprived of it, so that the small amounts available jcan be reserved for the forces, and \the authorities are refusing to' take the chance that any supplies allowed to pass through the blockade might ultimately find their way to the enemy.
Inquiries were made on behalf of the French tobacco monopoly in southern Maryland, with a view to purchases from the May crop. Growers declined, however, to enter into any commitments without the prior assurance that the British would let the consignments through.
For some years France has purchased extensively on the Maryland loose leaf market. and Paris maintained a representative in the Maryland tobacco country until the outbreak of the war, Today exports of Maryland tobacco have almost ceased, but the growers are taking the Brit-[ish decision philosophically, "We hardly expected them to let it through," said a trade leader today,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.