DANGERS OF DIAMOND-CARRYING

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 261, 4 August 1928, Page 24

DANGERS OF DIAMOND-CARRYING

Every week as much as a hundred thousand pounds’ worth of finished stones are sent from the cutting workshops in Amsterdam to the great jewel mart in Hatton Garden, London. But 99 per cent, of them travel by the method that is at once simplest and safest. They go by ordinary registered letter post (says a ‘Diamond Merchant” in the “Daily Mail”).

Such letters need not even be opened by the Customs, for there is no import duty on precious stones in England. The bulk of a batch of unset diamonds that might be worth a king's ransom is so small that it would not be worth while for even a “dope” smuggler to evade the revenue watchdogs by substituting a package of cocaine. Eemiprecious stones, such as agates, are, of course, larger and heavier. Parcels containing them may be opened for examination, but their value makes them hardly worth a thief’s attention.

Even a traveller who is coming to London from the Continent usually

sends his stones ahead of him by post, addressed either to his agent or to a safe deposit, where he collects them on arrival. The safe deposits are also, by night, the strong-rooms of the smaller street traders,' whom one can see any day nonchalantly exhibiting a handful of unset stones to possible clients on the pavement. By day, their “strongrooms” are their waistcoat pockets!

Customs formalities, however, are not so simple abroad. In most European countires an ad valorem tax of 1 per cent, is imposed. The United States duty is a much heavier one—-about 20 per cent. These valuable packages arc usually, of course, fully insured, and it says much for the integrity of the postal services of the world that the premiums are usually low. though they may be raised in cases of special risk.

No company, probably, has been asked to name a premium for a consignment to Soviet Russia, though Russia in pre-revolution days was one of our best markets. Nowadays it is a seller, not a buyer.