ANTI-PILLAGING DRIVE

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 November 1944, Page 6

ANTI-PILLAGING DRIVE

SYDNEY, Nov. 3. A Central Cargo Control Committee has been formed to help stamp out pillaging from trains, ships, wharves and warehouses. The police in all States, special railway and waterfront detectives, and American and Australian service police will cooperate with the. new committee. The Commonwealth Government is reported to have set aside more

than £lOO,OOO to finance the drive against organised pilfering, which officials say is the source of floods for the black market. Shipping companies have subscribed money to help detect and break up the gangs of pilferers, who are believed to bepperating as ’an inter-State organisation. Special investigators said the gangs operating on goods trains knew before the trains left the goods yards which trucks contained goods marked down for theft. Cargoes were broached

while the trains were t moving; the stolen property was then thrown off and picked up by lorries following the train. These goods were then trucked to a storage centre and released in the black market by agents.