September 1 1925
Ulster is the simple title of a pamphlet prepared under the direction of the Belfast Ministry of Commerce and, apparently, issued as a “Guide” to the Belfast section at the Wembley Exhibition.
Statements in a paragraph at the beginning of the book (pp. 9 and 10) have just been seriously challenged. The Ministry says: –
“Amongst other matters, the administration of the Customs and Excise services is reserved to the Imperial Government, and, therefore, trade with Northern Ireland is not subject to the vexatious restrictions and impediments which would be inevitable were the Customs duties different from those of Great Britain. The British duties and procedure apply in every detail to Northern Ireland, and any alteration in either operates automatically there. Traders overseas have, therefore, merely to remember that Northern Ireland is, for trade purposes, part of the United Kingdom, and that they can ship goods to any Port in Northern Ireland in exactly the same manner as they ship them to London or Liverpool”.
But that is not the case. A Belfast trader, writing to a Belfast paper over the date of August 29, says bluntly: –
“The remarkable ignorance which apparently exists on the other side of the Channel is not as remarkable as the ignorance which apparently exists in the Ministry of Commerce. Their article is altogether misleading, to put it mildly, as regards the actual position of affairs in view of the recent legislation covering silk and artificial silk, etc”.
Now, if a Ministry of Commerce is grossly ignorant of important facts relating to local trade, what reliance can be placed on it as an oracle of Commerce? The writer proves his charge to the hilt, saying: –
“The formalities required by Customs form No. C.126 are more difficult to supply than the specifications necessary for the shipment of goods into the Irish Free State. To comply with some of the requests which have recently passed across my desk an Ulster firm dealing in silk and artificial silk goods would require to add to their establishment a department of historical research, and employ at the same time an analytic chemist to answer some of the inquiries with regard to the relative proportions of silk and artificial silk contained in various articles, when they were manufactured, has duty been paid; if so, how much and when, etc?
I do not think that any merchant trading as between Edinburgh and London has these particulars to supply”.
Despite Northern Ireland being in the same customs union as Great Britain, unlike in other parts of the UK, customs forms, often very complicated ones, had to be completed before goods were shipped across the Irish Sea.