Thriller Of The Seeing Eye

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

Thriller Of The Seeing Eye

MO motor truck he had ever seen " »eemed ao alive. And only one special pprt of the drab little vehicle was living. The watcher walked completely around it to discovai whether all other portions of the car were as entirely dead as they should be in a truck evidently devoted to carrying furniture and equipment. He found absolutely no sign oi life, not even on the driver's seat, which had apparently been vacated while the driver went to lunch.

So the watehcr returned curiously to the two inches which were obviously living. Here was a small hole in the body of the truck. The watcher placed his eye to the aperture and looked ■within.

Steadfastly returning his gaze, a hairlength away, was another human eye. Its iris wa« black, and its unwinking character had had a mesmeric quality when the watcher ftrst plumbed its depths a few minutes before. But on this second examination the watcher scorned to catch an aspect of terror in that disembodied eye. Now, the watcher happened to be an employee of the United States Government. His khaki. uniform • and puttee* (and revolver) were the dress ordained for the Border Patrol Division of the U.S.A. Immigration and Naturaliaation

B »~ ~ Cecil Scott

Service. His chief aspiration in lifb for some days had been to gather up a group of Orientals who, he knew, had cither crossed the international border or were making preparations to do so.

Since no Frankenstein motor truck has yet been created which has a living eye about 1"i inches behind the driver's feat, our friend waited until the driver returned, then ordered the vehicle to be opened, with the result that shortly four (.hinese were Incarcerated in gaol and a word of congratulation was extended to the official seeker after unwinking eyes in ancient motor trucks.

You would see two of these inspectors of the U.S.A. Border Patrol if you passed through the Customs and immigration at Blaine, on the American-British Columbian border. Their Canadian counterpart is the Preventive Division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is also continually on the search for smugglers and smuggled. As a matter of fact the two services often work in conjunction to make the International Patrol safe for the law-abiding and dangerous for the trespasser.

Adventures On the Canadian-American Border

The 25 Border Patrol inspectors know all the lanes, highways, and trails along their stretch of Canadian boundary; are acquainted with the farmers, loggers and prospectors who make their homes on the open agricultural land near the coast or the timbered areas farther inland. Members of this patrol travel in pairs, ready for trouble; but they find their work is to-day mostly a battle of wits, especially along the western end of the international boundary. Reports from north of New England and along the Great lakes tell of battles with desperadoes and of combats with FrenchCanadian labourers who have smuggled themselves from the low-wage area of Quebec to the comparative paradise of the mill towns and logging camps south of the border.

South of British Columbia, however, 14 years of Border Patrol guardianship has reduced the number of white people who attempt to beat their way across the border on foot or in cars, without formality of calling at the immigration station, to a comparatively negligible quantity. In 1023, the year before their .establishment, some 550 were turned back at Blaine station alone, for the American quota law had been enacted and waa about to be strengthened. The number who got over the line without paying their respects to the immigration officials could only be guessed.

induced to make their own way across the line to the home of a confederate of the smuggler. These confederates are becoming harder to find each year, but the smugglers think they have ways of persuading some who used to accept a couple of cases of liquor in the old days as rent for storage of whisky, still to help in the more dangerous game of to-day. The price is silence about former escapades. The Border Patrol have had orders to make as many friends as possible along the border. Their natural allies, too, have been those who wish to pursue a life of unmolested peace close to the line. When strangers whom They suspect appear in their midst, they often send along a telephone call to the Border Patrol.

So in the endeavour to make the Canadian and Mexican borders leakproof the Immigration and Naturalisation Service established the Border Patrol on both boundary lines. Incorporated in it were the few mounted troops who had kept adventurous watch along the Mexican border, chancing rifle shots and the stabbing knife to keep Mexican labourer« from moving in their hundreds into the United States.

The first few years of the work were adventurous indeed. For those were the days of prohibition. Smugglers made devious and concerted plans to get their product across the border. The rich profits of the trade made it worth while to take risks, atid even to enjrage in a little gunplay. Working often with confederates across the line or in Seattle, and not above the use of bribery, they made things hot for the Border Patrol.

Those days are practically gone and it hardly pays to smuggle liquor north or south nowadays. So some of the hardiest of the old adventurers have gone into narcotics and Orientals, both of which pay well if you aren't caught. Occasionally a 'plane is used, and Border Patrol inspectors tell of a crash on the' Canadian side of the border from which both pilot and a number of Orientals escaped alive. But normally a motor car is the method of transportation adopted, or else the Orientals are

Yet a comparatively small part of the work of the Border Patrol is to pick up the occasional unemployed Canadian who crosses the line to seek honest work on the American side. Inspectors (lo find a few of them, either wandering along the highway or in Bellingham or Mount Vernon. Some have had friends drive them across the border as tourists and then leave them to their own resources, but the mere existence of the patrol has kept their numbers down. The patrol inspectors have their own ways of discovering who are Canadians and who are Americans. One means of knowing the difference is the type of clothes worn. For instance, not so long ago, almost every second B.C. working man wore a "pepper-and-salt" working shirt of good quality and serviceability. the Border Patrol knew that at that special time none of these shirts *iK e stocked in U.S,A. stores. Thus the Canadian was his owi walking advertisement.

Since that date that special shirt has been adopted by U.S.A. working men, and has been largely abandoned by many Canadians; and other trade marks have been unknowingly substituted which it is not the purpose of this article to disclose. One man recently, for instance, who wore & costume distinctly Canadian, but search of whose garments disclosed 110 B.C. store markings, broke down when inspectors looked in one of his rubbers. It was stamped with an Ontario firm's name, just under an insole.

JiT- one part of Canada, two young lads were smuggled across the line in special compartments of a bo called honeymoon car, which a man and unrelated woman smuggler had rigged up to attract the sympathy of immigration officers so that they should not make their search too searching. Indeed, smugglers of either whites or Orientals often persuade elderly women or * woman and child to accompany them as centres of distraction to officials.

Armed and ready for any trouble, the Border Patrol of British Columbia has done its share in preserving law and order. The notorious Bagley was caught by a Border Patrol inspector following a Fraser Valley hold-up. Interrogated by the inspector at the border, he was a«ked the purpose of a gun he was carrying.

I m taking it to Bellingham to have the bolt repaired," answered Bagley. "Let's have a look at it/' said the inspector.

®° Bagley handed over the weapon. The inspector found the gun was in wonderful working order, and with his own revolver, held Bagley until he could be escorted to Bellingham gaol, where Bagley escaped with the use of a gun smuggled in to him. The Bagley gang which held up a Nanaimo institution was also caught and held by the United States Border Patrol.

Orientals, and mainly Chinese and Hindus, are the chief object of the Bor>a^ r °l' s attention. For both Hindus and Chinese feel the recurrent desire to return to their native land. If living in the States, they usually cross to Canada to secure the passporte with which-they entered America., then cross the Pacific, and on getting back to Vancouver head again for their adopted United States home.

. ,? ,^U8 y ear after year, there is an attempted, traffic by these folk across the border. Many of the Hindus have entered the Tjnited States by wav of Mexico, reached by direct passage under bond from India to San Diego. These Hindus, when the time comes to return for a visit home, make their slow way up to Canada and, describing themselves as "one of the GOO" or "on? of the 800," seek passports for India. The reference is to shiploads of Hindus

brought into Canada early in this century by the r.m.s. Monteagle, and containing scores of Hindus with exactly the same names.

In those days lees attention wa« paid to scars, to villages of origin and to fathers' names, which is the means by which many Hindus still tell themselves apart. So new Hindus who have smuggled themselves into America frequently adopt the inadequate descriptions of 30 years ago to negotiate a trip to India. In British Columbia, on their return, they must once more brave the terrors of the United States border in order to reach one of the three Hindu colonies in the States.

Inspectors find Chinese difficult to trap in cross-examination. Japanese, once their prearranged alibis hare been uncovered, often break down or rush on volubly to their doom. on the other hand, have been comparable to imaginative story-tellers. But Chinese stick to the story they have decided to tell. Even when their statements are proven not to be fact, they are apt to view with astonishment the evident inconsistency, but make no attempt to explain it. And finally, when ultimately cornered, they relapse into "Me no sabe."

Sam Peterson, a man whom the United States Border Patrol sought for years, but were unable to entice across the border when they had the "goods'* on him, a few months ago was placed safely behind the bare at McNeill Island, near Seattle. Alleged leader of notable expeditions of Orientals into the United States, he was finally caught taking a white man across. It was a downfall which this leading executive of smuggling, who built up a splendid organisation in Washington dedicated - p J tin - Orientals to safety, will find it dixiicuit to defend with "the jjansr."