NEW SMUGGLERS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 10, 13 January 1932, Page 16

NEW SMUGGLERS

IN PARIS MODELS

/Resolutp, action-, by .-the Inland Ecyenuo authorities looks--'lifco-; extirpatJngi.a .form/of. tradin'g;ifhiclihas long boon defrauding the Treasury, says the London^ "Daily■ Tolegraph.?' : "It is alleged ;tliat 'private individuals, : including ' ■ niany women well known--to London society, have been bringing in from- abroad for disposal in • this country dresses or 'hnodels" on which they have paid tho lower duty of only a flow shillings (based on weight) which, is imposed when an ar- j ticle is for private.. use>. On such imported dresses, the regular trader would haye had. to ,pay anything; up to £25 per dress as duty. -.. •■-.. :- 'During the past few weeks Customs inspectors have raided some thirty dress establishments in the AVest End, and %s the result of a strict scrutiny of tffeir; books have imposed arrear-duties and .files'^amounting' to thousands pf pounds.', iii :. respect" 'of " such dresses brought to Londoii from Paris ana other Continental cities. .. The ; chairman of .'Reville, Ltd., (if Hanover-street, W., Mr, Edward H. Symonds,. said to. a representative of the "Daily Telegraph":—"This ovil has- been . growing steadily for years; and the dress trade proper has been, doing its .utmost, to. check it, but without success. '■ I; am well within the figures, I any sure,' when I say that the loss Resulting to the British revenue amounts to a sum not far short of half a million sterling a year. " The" trader has" to pay "a duty of 33,-1-3 -.per .-cent.: oil .the value of. each dressj or, say>- anything between £10 to £25,;but,tiie private individual can get the same, costume- through by a, merely/nominal; duty assessed according- to weight. - It is an absurd an^ j n . equitable arrangem.e.n.t. : ' •' ."One -of ithexhicf''.difficulties has .bfeen-ithat the people' of whose activities': we 'complain import dresses from France'thcmselves and then hawk them around.' the dress salons to bo copied. , W.fc'ikup>V base's they have emplbyc'd" agenfs sat. tinything between El andr £s:a,day/to/display "each dress f mpdei^ -s.o that- "a iiasty. muslin pattern copy could be njade for,imitation later mi.th© right materialsL : . This, exploit-, ing.rof"'other.people's ideas -is- a fraud on traders. W;ho.- enipjoy competent artists'. and; respectable, "methods, but it provides certain individuals with a very considerable- income, or,has ibeen'doing so.until now." _\ •/-'■ '■■"'■