SMUGGLERS' PROFITS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 20

SMUGGLERS' PROFITS

: EXTENSIVE OPEBATIONS IN • ENGLAND.; ■■♦'Smuggling is done extensively from Holland to-day, chiefly by motor-yachts-men, and in many a summer week-end more than £200 is made easily." The speaker was a Dutchman, with whom I walked along the promenade en the ' edge of the sands of Seheveningen (Holland), writes a special correspondent of the "Sunday Express." I had learned, from inquiries made, that cargoes of goods to be smuggled across were known to be dispatched from here and from other smal 1 Dutch seaports. "There are at least a dozen and possibly twenty English motor-cruisers engaged in it every fine week-end," he continued. "The actual smugglers are young men who not only do it for the easy money they can make, but also for the sport. You will firfd on Friday, and Saturday evenings many motor-ears ' arriving'from London at West Mersea, Heybridge Basin, Maldon, Wivenhoe, anad Brightlingsea. The owners of these motor-cars are motor-yachtsmen, and usually spend their week-ends fishing. They bring their gear, baskets of food, whisky,* rugs, and other things for their week-ends afloat. No one takes any notice of them. Their motorcruiseys are waiting for them, and oft they- go. "They go out to sea and fish till Sunday, when; they make for a pre-arrang-ed spot in mid-ocean. These motor-, cruiser owners are all sailors.-Most of them learned navigation during the war, and off the east coast, too, so that, •unerringly, they can make for a given mark. They reach that mark, and simultaneously another motor-cruiser arrives from Holland. Packages of silk ttoddngs'and eases of cigars are handid from the Dutch to the English boat. "Sunday evening comes, and the motor-cruisers return to their hards •Jong the Essex - coast They come kshore with their packages and rugs, boast of theit fine eaten, and exhibit a basket of fish, pack their things away in their waiting motor-cars, and set off for London. "A pair of silk stockings," he added "may be bought for-10s in Holland, While in London the same pair will be sold for 255, thanks to the heavy duty. Five hundred - pairs of silk stockings . do not make four : bulky parcels, aad many boxes of cigars can be hidden in a big fish basket. That is the way smuggling is chiefly carried on to-day. "I known of three or four men," he added, "who clubbed together and rented a loft in Bye. That loft when I last saw it was-half full of boxes of brandy, bales of silk, and 'boxes of cigars—all hidden under sails and nets. It was removed at night in a. touring car bit by bit, but some of it was sold on the spot to local purchasers % who. came up and took their pick. , : "Fairlight <Jlen is another favourite, spot for landing cargoes, but Newhavenand Shoreham are both too hot to be safe. Deal has been nsed from time to time, but Bye is the headquarters. ~ I believe there are at least a score of families.in Bye who live safely and comfortably by smuggling. It in the local joke.. ■ "Poole Harbour has been the scene «f other smuggling exploits, pther cargoes have been landed on Bomney Marsh, at Bracklesham Bay, n*ear Chichester, and near Itchenor, on Chichester Harbour. The Isle of Sheppey and the lonely marsh farms, up the East Swale, en the North Kent coast, and the district round Harty Ferry have also been 'used,' while a regular store was kept for two months on an Essex island until the locan man became frightened. "Hamfotd Water, which is farther north, is full of islands, and near Harwich is another good place, because it is "lonely and unfrequented, while the Biver Aide, in Suffolk, is,.l believe, as much a haunt of smugglers now as even it was in the old days."