§ MR. SLOANTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that in some Customs ports, particularly Liverpool, Customs bonded warehouses and vaults are allowed to remain open without an officer being present therein; and, if so, is this practice sanctioned in the warehousing code issued to the Revenue services; and if any, and what, steps are taken to prevent abstraction of 739 spirits from such warehouses and vaults in the absence of the officer.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) I learn that Customs bonded warehouses at Liverpool and elsewhere, when open for the deposit or delivery of goods, are always under the superintendence of an officer, but that the continuous presence of an officer at every warehouse is not prescribed by the warehousing code, and is not required for Revenue purposes. The warehouse keeper is responsible to the Crown under heavy bond for the duty upon the entire stock, and the Board of Customs inform me that they have no reason to fear that there is the slightest danger to the Revenue under the present system, which was instituted after prolonged inquiry in 1881–3 upon the Report of the Treasury Bonded Warehouse Committee.