LUCILE GOWNS SEIZED

All Imported Goods Taken from Lady Duff-Gordon's Establishment
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There was excitement among the half-dozen models from abroad whom Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon recently placed in her fashionable dressmaking establishment, Lucile, Limited, at 17 West Thirty-sixth Street, when
Deputy Surveyor Norwood and Customs Inspector Williams appeared there shortly after noon yesterday, announcing that they had orders to seize all the imported goods they could find.

They displayed a search warrant Issued by Commissioner Shields on Thursday at the same time as he issued the warrants for the arrest of Thomas J. Duggan, manager of Lucile, Limited, and Abraham Merritt, Secretary, on charges of conspiracy to defraud the Government by undervaluation of imported women's apparel. Assistant District Attorney Wemple, who has charge of the case for the Government, was too busy to
attend to seizures at the time of the arrest late Thursday afternoon and on Friday..

The fears of the models were allayed when the customs officers explained that their search warrant referred only to wearing apparel on the shelves and in boxes.

The customs officers went through the whole four-story house, from basement to roof, gathering in every article that looked as if it had been imported or bore a foreign manufacturers' label or customs mark.
These it Is intended to compare with the articles imported under the consular invoices, and with the private invoices which the Government alleges were also kept.

All told about sixty gowns were seized, which, it is understood, are worth $20,000. The cab was so full with the dainty creations of artistic needlework that the officers who made the seizure had to crowd beside the chauffeur on the front seat.

Assistant District Attorney Wemple said last night that the seized wearing apparel will be kept in the Seizure Room at the Custom House pending a full identification, and an investigation of the valuations declared.

Lady Duff Gordon was served with a subpoena yesterday to appear as a witness in the case on Monday before the Federal Grand Jury.