THE MARKETEERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 85, 11 April 1945, Page 3

THE MARKETEERS

NO MASTER MINDS , MOSTLY SMALL OPERATORS LONDON. What sort of people arc running the black market to-day? There are no master minds or country-wide rings behind it. In the main it is the '-small man," or medium operator, who still gives the authorities trouble. That is the view of a man who has been tracking down black marketeers for over two years and a half. He is Mr. George Yandell, head of the Board of Trade Enforcement Branch, and formerly one of Scotland Yard's "Big Six" superintendents. He ougnt to know. He has a staff of 70 to 100, mostly ex-detectives and policemen. He works in close cooperation with a team of "back room" accountancy men who probe into books and transactions. To the suggestions that the black market, or parts of it, are nationally organised, Mr. Yandell retorts: "BUNKUM!" / "If there were any evidence of anv ring or master mind consistently making big money I am sure my staff or the police would get on their track," he said. "Apart from other sources of information, there would always be 'squealers' in a big organisation." This was his summing up of the black market position:— No provincial town can be singled out blacker or whiter than others. Black marketeers are being constantly rounded up. There are a lot of prosecutions pending. The black market is certainly not getting out of hand. Black market deals in stolen goods are the exception rather than the rule. In areas making certain goods— Yorkshire and cloth, for instance — more of those goods are available locally than other things. Trafficking in coupons is a serious problem. On top of actual private deals, some retailers are getting supplies to cover their "off-the-coupon" sales at fancy prices. Cosmetc rackets have fallen off.