LIQUOR SMUGGLING

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 January 1923, Page 5

LIQUOR SMUGGLING

AMERICAN REVELATIONS. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) NEW YORK, January 29. The “New York Times’s” Washington correspondent says :—The State Department has informed Representative Rogers, who is investigating the situation, that, with the connivance of Bahaman offiicals, 2,000,000 gallons of whisky have been illegally imported into the United States from the island since prohibition became effective. Air. Rogers stated the Bahaman officials were honest, but they are without any incentive to take a strong stand on moral grounds in any matter which would materially injure the colony. The traffic was at its height to-day. A large capital was invested in the smuggling system, which was highly organised and remunerative. Air. Rogers also stated the Bahaman Government derived 1,200,000 dollars revenue from this traffic in 1922, while in 1918 revenue from all sources totalled only 400,000 dollars. The vessels carrying the liquor never proceed from the Bahamas to the ports whereto they are cleared, but. lie off the American coast, and meet small speedy boats, which land the liquor everywhere on Hie Atlantic, coast.