IRISH SWEEP TICKETS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11831, 12 January 1933, Page 6

IRISH SWEEP TICKETS

SEIZED BY CUSTOMS LONDON, Nov. 2p. Customs officials at Liverpool and Holyhead are' seizing a large s’umber of Irish. Sweep Tickets, which are illegal documents in England. Some £900,000 worth of those were seized and burnt at Liverpool last week. Flew) passengers are allowed through the Customs barriers without a thorough search of their baggage, followed, in some instances, by a search of their clothing. Cumulative experience of the methods adopted in the past to get tickets into England is standing the officers in. good stead.

Tho hauls are believed to bo considerably larger and more numerous than is publicly known, simply because the officers havo learnt where to look for consignments. “It should lie thoroughly understood,” said a Post Office official, ‘that the post is inviolate in the ordinary way, and no letter can be opened without special authority from the Home Office.

‘‘So far as Irish sweepstake tickets are concerned, the Home Office has alrcody given its authority for opening those, but there is nothing in the nature of a "black cabinet,” nor are mechanical or scientific means used for examining letters.” As the majority of tho Irish' -mail enters "Britain at Liverpool, there is a special squad of Customs officers attached to tho General Post Office in jtihajb city, to deal with suspoctetd pqckageg.