Importing Java classes from the Matlab's -r argument it's not working

(Matlab version is 7.8.0.347 (R2009a) for windows and linux)

I'm experiencing problems with Java classes name resolution. I have been able to dig into problem and isolate the essence of it.

If I'm running this command from the OS command shell:

   matlab -r "str=java.lang.String('Hello')"

it works perfectly. But running this very similar code

   matlab -r "import java.lang.String;str=String('Hello')"

I'm getting this Matlab's error:

   ??? Undefined function or method 'String' for input arguments of type 'char'.

putting the code inside a function,

   function dumfunc()
    import java.lang.String;
    str=String('Hello')

and calling it like this form the OS command shell:

   matlab -r "dumfunc"

works perfectly. It doesn't work if a write the code lines into a script it must be a function.

It appears as problem with the name resolution of Java classes and more precissly with the import facility.

Any guess what is going on?

Regards

Antonio