WAR ON SMUGGLERS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 35, 4 November 1933, Page 18

WAR ON SMUGGLERS

Secret Service After Big Game

The plans of the greatest smugglinj conspiracy Britain has known for years are coming to a head. The heart of the organisation is somewhere on the Continent. The plans have been in preparation for months. They have been organised with meticulous care. If they succeed, the Customs will be cheated of thousands of pounds of revenue (states the “Sunday Chronicle”). There will be war to the knife between the Customs Secret Service and the newly-formed gang. Since the imposition of the new tariff duties the vigilance of the secret service has been unsurpassed. They have practically suppressed the smuggling into Britain of fabrics and other dutiable articles of clothing. They are determined to defeat this latest challenge to their authority. But the tight must inevitably be a ruthless one. For the prizes of the game are rich ami the Customs’ adversaries men of immense determination and skill. Saccharine is the article they intend

to bring in, the duty on which amount« to nearly £7,000 a ton. The smugglers are men who for years have earned a rich and dangerous living running rum into America. “That is what the defeat of prohibition in the States is doing for us,” said a Customs authority to the “Sunday Chronicle.” “The rum runners are out of work. For years they have plied their trade in hourly peril of death. They are all fine seamen. “There are master mariners among them who have lost their jobs in the depression which has afflicted the mercantile marine. They are men to whom danger means nothing. “They see nothing criminal in smuggling. They regard it as a lawful game. ‘.‘We are fully aware of this latest threat.” added the Customs man. “We know at least one trader in London who is prepared to risk the purchase of a contraband cargo. “We shall play our part.”