PRECIOUS GOODS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 18, 22 January 1944, Page 6

PRECIOUS GOODS

SMUGGLING IN GERMANY

I German agents are pitting their wits against; British and American contraband' control officers in efforts to smuggle valuable commodities into Germany from South America, by way of Spain and Portugal, says a correspondent of the London "Daily Telegraph." The game, already costly to the enemy, will soon be completely unremunerative. I Platinum, industrial diamonds, mica, and liver extract have been 'found in cargoes carried by neutral vessels without the knowledge of either the ship's master or crew, concealed in innocently labelled containers. , Almost all the platinum smuggled across the Atlantic comes originally from Colombia, the great platinum producing country. It finds its way, legitimately, into the Argentine, where it frequently comes into the hands of German agents still able to pursue their, calling at liberty. Here it is smuggled aboard a neutral vessel either in the keeping of a passenger or seaman, or concealed in the cargo. Every trick is resorted to so that German war industry shall benefit. The platinum might form part of the bumper of a car, or it might be made up into "tins" containing preserved fruit. A commodity of high value and small bulk, it may be found concealed somewhere within the fabric of the vessel itself. Indeed, it might almost be necessary to analyse a vessel plate by plate. Apart from the direct route taken by vessels between the River Plate and Spanish Mediterranean ports, which involves passing the contraband base at Gibraltar, there are the other routes to the Atlantic Islands and the Spanish ports on the Atlantic from the Caribbean Sea. It is estimated that on an average there are some 80 or 90 neutral vessels at sea and 60 in port at any given time. The Spanish Government has protested against the searching of its vessels, but results have now convinced it of the necessity. The German authorities have continually to find fresh persons to undertake their smuggling as the risk to the seaman is very grave. Usually the greatest co-operation is met with by the masters and crews iri the search for contraband.