This law shall enter into effect on the day following that on which it is known to have been published in printing as a Swedish Statute.

The provisions of this law shall not apply to the right of an alien to transfer such a share in a ship or such a share in a corporation which at the time a decree as defined in Article 1 becomes effective is already owned by an alien, nor to such a right to time-charter or to use a ship as is held by an alien at the time, nor to the right to subscribe for or receive new shares in a corporation to which, by virtue of the articles of incorporation, the stockholders may be entitled at the time.

LAW REGARDING PROHIBITION IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES
AGAINST FOREIGN FREIGHT TRAFFIC

IN SWEDISH SHIPS, ETC.

Article 1

In the event of war or risk of war in which the Kingdom may be involved, or otherwise in exceptional circumstances caused by war, the King, while the Riksdag is not in session, may insofar as is deemed necessary decree that the provisions of Articles 2 and 3 below shall be applied. Should the following session of the Riksdag fail within 30 days from its opening to approve a decree thus issued it shall cease to be valid upon the expiration of that period.

If circumstances such as defined in the first paragraph are deemed to exist at a time when the Riksdag is in session, the King may only issue such a decree as referred to above with the consent of the Riksdag.

Article 2

Without permission from the King or the body authorized by the King to grant such permits, goods may not be shipped between foreign ports or between a Swedish and a foreign port in a Swedish ship of 200 gross register tons or more. This provision shall apply also to the shipping of goods otherwise than against payment.

Irrespective of the foregoing rules, the provisions of the Maritime Law concerning the right of the master to sell goods belonging to the shipowner or the right of the master and the shipowner to sell cargo, or those concerning the unloading of goods at some other place than the port of destination, shall continue to apply although goods loaded at a place in Sweden may thereby be unloaded at a foreign port, or vice versa, or that goods loaded in a foreign country may thereby be unloaded in a foreign country: Provided, however, that in cases falling within the purview of Article 133 of the Maritime Law cargo may be unloaded only at the loading port or at a port in Sweden.

The prohibition mentioned in the first paragraph of this Article shall not apply to provisions or other ship's supplies, supplies belonging to passengers or persons employed on the vessel or to salvaged goods.

Ships such as

Article 3

described in the first paragraph of Article 2 may not without permission from the King, or the body authorized by the

King to grant such permits, travel in ballast between foreign ports or between a Swedish and a foreign port. Nor may such a ship without permission from the King, or the body authorized by the King to grant such permits, be laid up, dismantled or have the crew signed off for any other purpose than necessary repairs.

Article 4

If a Swedish ship has carried freight in violation of the provisions of Article 2, or if such a ship has traveled in ballast in violation of the provisions of Article 3, the master shall be sentenced to day-fines or to imprisonment for not more than 1 year.

If anyone has offered, hired, urged, or otherwise intentionally prevailed upon the master to commit the offense, or by word and deed furthered it, or if the shipowner or another person who in his stead has had to deal with the ship, was aware of the offense and neglected to prevent it, insofar as he was able, he shall be punished as prescribed in the first paragraph of this article.

If freight for the shipment is due the delinquent in accordance with an agreement, the Court may, if considered appropriate, order him to surrender the amount of the freight. If the one to whom the freight is due is not liable to penalty in accordance with the foregoing provisions, he may be ordered to pay a part of the freight equivalent to the estimated maximum profit on the illegal shipment. If a ship is laid up, dismantled, or the crew is signed off in violation of the provisions of Article 3, the owner of the ship, or the person at whose disposal the ship has been placed, shall be sentenced to day-fines or to imprisonment for not more than 1 year.

Article 5

Fines imposed in accordance with this law as well as payments which the delinquent, or any other person, is sentenced to make in accordance with this law shall accrue to the State.

This law shall become effective on the day following that on which it is known to have been published in printing as a Swedish Statute. The provisions of this law shall not apply to ships which at the time when such a decree as mentioned in Article 1 becomes effective are let to a foreigner through an agreement for time-charter or use as long as the agreement remains valid.

If, at a time when a decree such as just mentioned becomes effective, a ship has left a port where goods have been loaded, or if the ship at the said time is traveling in ballast, the goods, irrespective of the decree, may be carried or the journey continued to the port of destination.

The DIVISION OF COMMERCIAL LAWS is prepared to supply information on foreign business laws and taxes.

Legal knowledge is a business necessity.

COMMERCIAL LAW FORUM

MEN WHO SEND MERCHANDISE down to the sea in ships these days are bound to wrestle with many an anxious moment. A sea lawyer who permits no barnacles to grow under his feet has suggested that the time has come to caution foreign traders to use extreme care in establishing, authenticating and preserving all evidence, documents and correspondence related to shipments. Experienced exporters

generally are careful about keeping papers in order, but when conditions in international trade are as unsettled as they are now, and from so many different causes, the ordinary care normally exercised falls short of current good practice. Counsel should be consulted as to the adequacy and legal effect, under American and foreign laws, of the steps taken to preserve and perpetuate evidence.

AT THE SAME TIME AN OLD CHINA HAND has volunteered the suggestion that any transactions in foreign trade involving credit, even cash against documents, should be more thoroughly investigated than usual. The current World Trade Directory report should be checked against each transaction, even when business with a foreign customer is at its apparent best. Before any shipment is made the latest foreign tariff information should be checked with the Bureau in Washington or the nearest District or Cooperative Office; and this is so even when the deal is on a cash-and-carry basis, because, says our informant, there's many a risk between scuppers and slip.

IN ESSENCE, IT APPEARS, these two suggestions are: lean heavily on the arms of your lawyer and the District Manager of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. The Forum will be glad to hear what other advice is offered for the development of our domestic and foreign industry.

FOREIGN LAW COMMENT

Price Control, War-Time Prices and Trade Board

The War-Time Prices and Trade Board, established by the Minister of Labor on September 3, 1939, was given certain powers, and primitive measures were established covering any offenses that may occur. A transcript of the regulations, as forwarded by the office of the American Commercial Attaché, Ottawa, follows:

REGULATIONS RESPECTING

Title

NECESSITIES OF LIFE

1. These regulations and any amendment or additions there to may be cited as the War-Time Prices and Trade Board Regulations.

Interpretation

2. For the purposes of these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires

(a) "Board" means the War-Time Prices and Trade Board.

(b) "Member" means a member of the Board.

(c) "License" means a license granted by the Board under these regulations.

(d) "Minister" means the Minister of Labour.

(e) "Necessary of life" means a staple or other ordinary article of food, fuel, and clothing, including the products and materials from or of which any thereof are in whole or in part manufactured, produced, prepared, or made, and such other articles of any description as the Board may from time to time prescribe.

(f) "Order" means an order of the Board made pursuant to these regulations.

(g) "Regulations" means any of these regulations any any amendment or addition thereto.

War-Time Prices and Trade Board

3. (1) There shall be a Board to be called the War-Time Prices and Trade Board consisting of three members of whom one shall be the Chairman, appointed by the Governor in Council to hold office during pleasure.

(2) The Board may establish at any place or places in Canada such office or offices as are required for the discharge of the duties of the Board, and may provide therefor the necessary accommodation, stationery, and equipment.

(3) The Board may, subject to the approval of the Governor in Council, appoint such officers, clerks, and other persons as may be deemed necessary to assist the Board in the performance of its duties, and such person shall receive such remuneration as the Board shall, with the approval of the Governor in Council, determine.

(a) To investigate, of its Own motion or on complaint, costs, prices, profits, and stocks of goods and materials of any person

engaged in the manufacture, production, storage, transportation, or sale of any necessary of life or any alleged or apparent unreasonable enhancement of price of any necessary of life, and for the purpose of any such investigation the Board shall have all the powers of a commissioner appointed under the provisions of the Inquiries Act. (b) To require manufacturers, producers, jobbers, wholesalers, or retailers of a necessary of life to obtain licenses from the Board and to fix the fees payable on account of such licenses.

(c) To suspend or cancel a license in any case where in the opinion of the Board the licensee has been guilty of a violation of any regulation or order.

(d) To fix maximum prices or margins of profits at which any necessary of life may be sold or offered for sale by manufacturers, jobbers, producers, wholesalers, or retailers.

(e) To fix and limit the quantities of any necessary of life which may be sold or distributed to persons within prescribed periods of time.

(f) To fix and limit the maximum amounts of any necessary of life that may be bought or sold by any person within prescribed periods of time.

(g) To buy and sell any necessary of life through agencies designated by the Board.

(h) If the Board is of opinion that a necessary of life is being unreasonably withheld from the market, to take possession of any supplies of such necessary of life, paying to the owners thereof such prices as may, in default of agreement, be decided to be reasonable by the arbitration of a superior-court judge of the province in which possession was taken.

(i) To refer to the Attorney General of any province information respecting any alleged offense against the regulations or any order of the Board made thereunder.

(j) To require from time to time any person who manufactures, produces, stores, or sells any necessary of life to furnish in such form and within such time as the Board may prescribe written returns under oath or affirmation showing such information as the Board may consider necessary with respect to such necessary of life.

(k) To make public their finding or report in the case of any investigation, or to withhold such publication if they consider the public interest would be better served by such withholding.

The powers vested in the Board by paragraphs (b), (d), and (h) of the next preceding subsection shall be exercised only subject to the approval of the Governor in Council.

5. Any two members of the Board shall constitute a quorum, provided, however, that the powers of investigation vested in the Board by paragraph (a) of subsection 1 of the next preceding section may be exercised by any one member of the Board, and provided further that the Board may appoint local or other committees to conduct investigations, and every such committee duly appointed shall be vested with all the powers of the Board necessary to conduct an investigation. 6. The Board shall, in exercising any of the powers vested in it by these regulations, take into consideration the amount of a necessary of life required for the use or consumption of any person in his household or for the ordinary purposes of his business, and at what price a necessary of life may be sold to return to the seller a reasonable and fair profit.