ARMY OF 3,500.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 15 August 1928, Page 3

ARMY OF 3,500.

FJGIHATNG ItUM-RUNNER.S HEAVY CASUALTIES.

TJi© London “Daily Express” recently gave reonarkaiblo diet ails of; the w*a r tween thei r urn-mu ncrsa.n cl ill© prpthibition officials of tiff® United States. It is a, war in which the iluw-b makers nisk thfiiir lives for the vast sums obtainable when each consignment of spirit reaches'' American soil. . , Government statistics just published in Washington show that the United States lias 3500 officials, with. 390 vessel's and five seaplanes, to resist the rum-runners. Enforcing prohibition costs £2,600,000 a year. In the six years since prohibition started, 4 J olticials have 'been hilled and! 203 wounded in fights with rum-runners. In the same time 839 hoate have 'been seized, but the traffic still goes on. Tlhe “spirit” is' exported to various Atlanta© islands, where the sale of hquo l is perfectly legal- There it is adriilteratecl and conveyed secretly to the rumrunners’ bases, to be rushed in last motor-boats through the prohibition blockade. INCIDENTS' OF THE WAX?, Eight thousand tons of brandy and whisky aaib sent monthly from an Ehglisli port to Bermuda and the Bahamus. Eadi sliiijp ouiiirios la-bou t 4000 tons of liquor, and an average cargo is valued at £300,000. Its value when it reaches. the consumer tin the United States is fabulous. . . . This, of course, is a legitimate business, but on its completion there begins a chain of astounding events. Nassau, in the Bahamas, is one of the ports used. The adveture starts even with the negroes who come aboard to unload. The negro 'labourers are so keen on the drink that during night work they are said to cut the electric imht wires, broach the tempting cargoes in the darkness, and become “gloriously drunk.”

GRAIN ALCOHOL. Presently the whisky goes to sea again, but by this time it lias been “cut down,” that is, diluted with grain alcohol, the buIK increased so that two cases have become three. The next task is to convey the diluted spirit away to other islands nearer Florida. _ . Bimini and Gun Cay are tiny islands some 70 miles from the mainland, admirably suited for the purpose. There the cargo may cither be put ashore, or it may be loaded direct to motor-boats designed for a speed that shall beat the patrols of American motor Revenue cutters. , , . Heavy money has now changed hands for the liquor, the real American wholesale bootlegger having now obtained possession of it at a fancy'figure. Before the rum-runnens start for the Florida coast, however, the 50 per cent, diluted stuff undergoes another 50 per cent, dilution. ... ~ The 70 miles run from Bimim or Gun Cay, or one or other of the small islands, to Miami, the groat Florida pleasure resort, is now attempted. It is a desperate risk, with immense prizes of cash for those who succeed. A traveller who l has just returned from the scene of this lile and death business described to me several incidents that had conic within his knowledge. “A craft of 40 tons was getting away from the revenue cutter when a shell caught her. She sank like a stone. The revenue men saved two lives, but most of the crew, as well as the liquor, went below. “It is a regular war between the preventive men and the bootleggers, each side hating the other. The captain o| a ‘rum-runtier’ challenged the entry ol the revenue men who came to board his craft. Seizing a couple of pistols lie shot two of the boarding party dead, and held his bout against the invaders for an hour. “One day the guests in the diningroom of the Biscayne Hotel, near Miami, were startled by the sound of firing, outside. Looking out, they saw a rum-runner scurrying lor safety, with a revenue cutter in hot pursuit peppering away as hard as possible l . .Bullets whizzed * through the windows of the hotel. The rum-runner twisted and turned in the network of canals, and eventually got clear away. * “ROBIN HOOD.” “ ‘Red Shannon,’ an American Irishman, with flaming hair, is the Robin Hood of the bootlegging brigade. Many a desperate run lie made successfully, but one day, after a terrific chase in broad daylight, he was cornered. As revenue men made for his craft with guns levelled at him he is said to have thrown up his hands in surrender. He was fired at and killed. Thafi was two rears ago, and after a long trial, dragged out in the American fashion, the revenue men were exonerated from blame. “Many wealthy men in Boston and New York held the view that it was a needless killing and voluntarily cam© south to. give evidence.” In addition to the rovemie cutters the bootlegszers run another risk from the “hijackers.” A “hijacker” As a pirate, and lie hovers about in a fast boat to prey on the bootlegger and despoil him of hits illicit cargo, and, if successful in this, rakes a run-for-shore with it lilmserr.