ST. PIERRE PROSPERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 189, 12 August 1933, Page 8 (Supplement)

ST. PIERRE PROSPERS.

A SMUGGLERS' BOOM.

PROFITS FROM RUM RUNNING.

AN ISLAND OF CONTRABAND,

From the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, lying within sight of the south shore of Newfoundland, a steady stream of liquor flows into the United States. St. Pierre, though only four miles long, cups around a fair harbour, and the town, also named St. Pierre, hugs the protected waterfront. There are only a few hundred inhabitants.

Nevertheless, that minute speck on the map is recognised as the most active liquor-smuggling centre in the world. The average of export shipments is close on 100,000 cases a month, which means an annual gross income of around 25,000,000 dollars. What will happen to that enormous business and that tiny town if and when wo repeal our Eighteenth Amendment! (wrote Mr. C. J. Hubbard recently in the New Itork '"Times").

I have seen the bootleggers' machinery in operation, particularly at St. Pierre, I which is the heart of the business, and I am sure that ifc will not bo wiped aw ay by a mere law. Millions of dollars are invested in equipment for liquor smuggling. As long as that equipment can show a profit it will be used. If, on the other hand, the risks of smuggling become too great, or if spirits produced in the United States are sold at_a small fraction of present speakeasy prices, the St. Pierre liquor-export business will fold -up. £40,000 A Boatload. At St. Pierre, two or three operating "roups or syndicates carry on 99 per cent of the smuggling trade. They own fleets of fast boats, many of them specially built and others reconstructed yachts and cruisers. The beats average only ninety feet in length, but with all of their space used for cargo—except for a cramped engine room occupied by two Diesels and a minute fo'e'sle in the" bow —they will hold 5000 cfises or more. Five thousand cases weigh 100 tons, a tremendous load for such small boats. The boats are gathered in St. Pierre while the moon is full, so that the nights may bo dark by the time they have returned to the American coast. Fifteen or twenty of them may be in harbour at the same time. Liquor is unbelievably low in price compared with the prices in America. Including all cost of transportation and all taxes, both in St. Pierre and at the source, Scotch whiskies can be bought for £2 a ease. I have seen an American rye whiskv, made in Kentucky in 1915 and bottled in Scotland, sold for as little as 16/. Gin, rum, brandy, wines and champagnes range between these figures, and the very highest price for the best liqueur whiskies is £3. It is easy to see why rum-running persists. Between the original cost and a £15 New York value there is a prolit of £40,000 a boatload. That leaves a wide margin to pay for protection, occasional losses and the cost of retailing. Where Everything is Cheap. St. Pierre has provided good facilities for rum-runners. All the boats in harbour at any one time may tie up at new concrcte wharves and load through chutes directly from trucks. Two great breakwaters close the entrance of the inner harbour against the northerly storms of winter. One of these has not yet been finished, and the waterfront provides a busy scene as the rock scows hurry back and forth and a ponderous dredge puffs at its task of widening and deepening the narrow channel. All the municipal improvements are a direct result of the liquor revenue. There is a very modest export tax of six francs (about 30 cents) per case, which brings in an annual return of about half a million dollars —this" for a town of 300 or 400 inhabitants, all of whom are already prosperous. Everything except liquor goes dutyfree. Everything is cheap. American cigarettes, without our internal revenue stamp, sell far below the market price. The finest French perfumes can be had for half the Paris value. When I first visited St. Pierre I expected to find somewhat the same conditions as those which obtained at Nassau a decade ago, when that West Indian city was the headquarters of drunken, rioting rum-runners. With a companion I flew from St. Johns, New foundland. I came ashore with a .38 revolver tucked in a shoulder holster, expecting to be met by a crowd of thugs. Instead, what awaited -us was a hearty welcome. Ours was the second airplane ever to call there and we found ourselves accepted as honoured guests. Old France in Mid-Atlantic. St. Pierre never experienced the lawleas mob that swept over its earlier rivals. The wild crews that had invaded Nassau were a thing of the past by the time St. Pierre entered the picture. The town was, and is, aynaval base with one regular destroyer that looks after the well-being of the French fishing fleets that come to the Newfoundland and Labrador banks. Except for the few people who farmed the larger island of Miquelon or sold its produce in the town, everyone on these French islands had always lived by the sea. There was considerable trading for export to the mother country, and a goodly fleet of schooners sailed from the tiny harbour, but the town was poor.

With the change in the export law the economic aspect changed, immediately. Because by that time liquor smuggling had become a highly-organised .business, St. Pierre was spared an influx of individual smugglers. Each of the syndicates placed an agent in the town to do the buying and handle the fleets Of sleek rum-boats that came to the harbour. The telegraph company moved into a prominent corner on the mam square. A powerful radio station was built on the top of the hill behind the town. Through these channels an active trade began. Steadily the volume of exports increased. Every smuggling venture is carefully prearranged. The low, grey rum-fooate lie invisible far out to sea, and communicate with the American shores by means of private radio systems. They wait till the coast is clear, and then speed to their rendezvous. The chances that they will be seen are very small, and even in that case they are sufficiently fast to elude their pursuers in the darkness. Although the actual rum-running is in the hands of a small crowd, all the inhabitants of St. Pierre reap the rewards of prosperous activity. St. Pierre could go back to her fishing gracefully, without the scars of overindulgence. While her people have prospered enormously, they have not squandered their gains. They should have cnougTi to keep them in comfort for| many years to come. i