BEATING BRITISH CUSTOMS

Evening Star, Issue 19025, 21 August 1925, Page 8

BEATING BRITISH CUSTOMS

stockings by aeroplahes •• LAST-MINUTE " CARGOES The liter British Budget duties on impelled silk and artilicial silk, clocks, watches, motor ears, and other articles came into force at 5 o’clock on June JO, and there were remarkable scenes at the Croydon air port in last-hour efforts to laud dutiable goods. A Scotsman Hying from Zurich was i 1 last person 'to escape the duties, ij .ptaiu 11. H. Macintosh was taking no risks. Ho brought his big Rollsllovce W 3 to rest on the piece of asphalt in front of the Customs with seventy minutes to spare. Sturdy follows thou unloaded cases and boxes of yoitl watches and clocks, which had taken up nearly all the space m the machine. Normally she carries fourtoon passengersj that day she carried but three. Merchandise was the thing, and the great air merchantman disgorged the products of Switzerland by the''thousand pound. If Captain Macintosh had been just one hour and eleven minutes late the goods would have cost their owners more than a bright penny. The air port was the scene of unusual stress and bustle for the previous three days. In lour days thirty-two tons of precious silks, clocks, watches, motor car parts, and so on, were unloaded there. In round figures these canmos were worth £500,000, and between £160,000 and £170,000 was saved in duties.

BIX OTHER LARGE CARGOES. | Before Captain Macintosh’s flying treasure house hovo into view six other air liners arrived from France stuffed to capacity. One was a big RollsRovcj Avro freighter—the biggest single-engine cargo aeroplane in the world —which was called into commission and sent post-haste to Pans to return crammed with silks and artificial silks of grcit value. A ‘ Daily Chronicle ’ correspondent writes —Just about 5 o clock, when the klaxon horns had ceased to announce the approach of further treasure from the skies, I had a peep behind the scones. Vans were being loaded with parcels, great and small, which had passed the Customs and were on the last lap of their journey to elated customers. “This,” said my guide, angering a little parcel with reverent mien, “ contains £uo worth or silk. It costs’ 2s 6d to send by air, and 2s 6d insurance. Had it arrived after 5 the extra duty would have been £lo os 4d- ' ■■ You see those thirteen little parrels in the corner of that van? There’s £f> 500 worth of silk in those. Now, take this one. Not very largo, is_ itr But it bolds £6O worth of silk shirts, socks, and the like. That would have cost another £22 or so in duty had it conn; alter 5. A WOMAN WHO KNEW. “ Here’s another—a private order a huly gave when she was in Paris —£165 worth of silk clothing, £55 saved in fluty. She knew something, didn t she? And here’s a parcel weighing just 7lb; 100 worth theie-

"This is a hat for Lady , Jj, lias cost her only £9 I Os’. But the trimmings and the lining will bo of silk, and that hat would have cost her a few pounds more if she hadn’t had it sent by air. “ This dross, too, The whole parcel weighs only half a pound. The dress costs £l9. Had it arrived after 5 there would have boon £6 Gs 8d in duty added, and the frock at ££s (is Btl might have proved a disappointment. “Nearly all the .stuff to go oil; now is for private buyers. The big people had their innings yesterday ami the days before. Much ol if is for women of fashion, and many of the gowns hero will be seen at Goodwood. After all, a saving in duty of tip to £2O mi a dress is Something which even a wealthy woman cannot ignore. BALES OF STOCKINGS. “Goodness knows how many hales of silk stocking,s have passed through, it almost gives me feet ache to think of it. That wooden box there.— Mint, cn i) -

tains £2,000 worth ol gold watches. 1 The fellow who gets that Inis saved .1 £650 in duties. Lnekyman! Ami Unit ] heap there. They are motor lamps from Holland-—absolutely the' last load I to land in England to escape .Mr Chur- ( chill’s tax. The silk and watch work- i ers over the seas seem to havo been i working overtime. Those J(l(J parcels J were the last to escape. They came in ( two seaplanes, winch arrived within . the space of two hours. Lois of silk t there. After all, .1. suppose many a 1 husband will ho glad to have saved a . few pounds on his wife's Goodwood ’ dress.” ] People at Croydon are Imping for a return to norma] condil ions. Air Chur- ' chill would havo been saddened—lie ] might well havo been maddened - had 1 he seen all I saw. Bui the Hon. Mrs Greone-Parko and Lady Kensington- 1 Gore, sauntering on the lawns at Good- ; wood, will certainly derive great sai::faction from to-day’s events m ihe air i port. “How we dodged the Chancellor” will make such a novel subject of i conversation. , i CUNARDER ARRIVES TOO LATE, i; Within four days thirty-nine private i motor cars, worth £l£Uo each,; thirtyeight cases of player-piano parts, valued at £5,11(10; and hundreds ol tins of lilins ’ varying in value from £f(J upwards, were landed at Southampton from Transatlantic liners,’as well as a largo ’ consignment of motor car parts and , hundreds ot cases of silk hosiery. feeventy-live per cent, ol the cargoes from New York during the last fortnight, before the new duties came into force, consisted of cases of artificial silk hosiery. Many comuiiied 120 dozen pairs of hose, each pair worth 16s. At the last moment ten bales of raw silk were rushed through in time to escape the duty. But Cue Cunarder Mauretania, which reached Southampton two hours after the official time, had her cargo liable to duty. A Belgian steamer from Osicnd, and the French mail steamer from Calais, were the last vessels to roach Dover with Continental goods which escaped the new duties. Last-minute bales of silk and lace came by the French steamer, while the Belgian steamer had j a large quantity of watches and clocks and some parcels of silk and lace. These | goods escaped by only an hour the j fixed rime, limit, ;