DRASTIC CUSTOMS WORK.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 185, 22 July 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

DRASTIC CUSTOMS WORK.

LUCILLE LIMITED RAIDED. The Customs officials swooped down recently iiunii the New York branch of the fashionable dress-mnk-mg firm of Lucille Limited, and arrested the manager. Mr. Thomas Duggan, on charges of defrauding the Unit-<*l Staffs Customs l>y undervaluing imported goods. He wa« subsequentlv liberated on bail of .-Clooo.

Lw-iilo Limited, the name under v. inch shops in London and Paris, as well as in New York, aro run. like all other dross making firms in Now York to which importations have Loen consigned during tho past year, has boon tho object of the closest scrutiny by l!>* American Customs authorities.

_L:idv Duff-Gordon, who is pre-id-mt of Lucille Liniil-. d. wwording tr> . tho 1911 corporation dirooforv. arrived in New York on tho fl!tl: Mav. She fold the reporter.; aitor the arrest that she was not th” loa.sf bit guilty of wrong, in hiet she vas not. as slop'd in thi corporation directory, president of Lucille .Limited. "I an; oidv an cniplovc-o of Lucille's,” alio said. "That is wlmt 1 nm. I am a. creato--. Al! I do is t-> draw designs for gowns. T have no idea what they cost, or u hat tliov s”ll for, or how much silk tbov require, or any of these details. .\]| tliose lui-.i-nrss matters aro in the hands of the direetors. It is not true that I own most or tho stock in this Amorienn company. T own none of it. 1 am on salary. J did. seven vi'ars or more ago. etgani-so this T.uedle Limited in London. and nnti l we opened our New \ ork branch 1 war, president and director and a participant in the profits, but then T sold ou+ to the stockholders who now control the business, and all I get is a fixed salary for my designs. “If those directors have been guilty oi .any kind of hankv-pankv business they should cartainly lie pui:ish;*d, J*iilI mn positive it is all a huge joke. Mr. Merritt and Mr. Duggan are not ih.it kinil of mon.”

Mr. Merritt is secretary and treasurer of the Lucille Corporation, and a. warrant for his arrest was taken cut.

A former employee of tho Lneillc firm, moved by tli” speech of tho judge m sentencing Air. Henry Duveen. head of the art importing firm of Duveen Brothers. London. Paris anil Now \ ork. who declared that "i icii smugglor.s as ',',-cI! as poor should pay the penalty of thi-ir misdeeds.” went to Air. Lo. b. Ihe chief Customs officer, and supplied evidence upon which Luri.Ho iias raided anil Mr. Dngran arrested. Air. Loeb, iiho was formerly se.-refary to Mr. Roosevelt, is sweeping the Customs service like a new I room, and if the charges are proved ;w-ainst Lwille, Lady Duff-Gordon’.'; iil-a fbaut a ■'huge joke” may have a grim *cquel.

In the ait-importing rases Judge .Martin declared that tho only rca-son h” *li:l not send Mr. Henry Duveen to g;!*->i was la-f-.m**' ;• nhysician had advise ! that imprisonment would mean Hie defendant's death in prison in a few mouths at west. Tho judge, ex-pr”-.-'iig hiin;,e]f forei'ily. said he had mid” up his mind not to kill a man for smuggling or under valuing im-

yortations. and. ns h? became J'O’.i--viri'-01. not from + ho physician oinploye.l by Mr. Duvren’s counsel, luii by a doctor brought irto the case by tho Lisirict Attorney. Mr. Wise himself, that pri-oti for ?dr. Dnve'-n meant nothing loss chan .a sentence of death, he had dete; min'd, no matter what t'w criticism, to give the maximum penalty in a fine, ami let him off with that.

Laly Duff-Gordon was subpoenaed to give evidence b'*f**ro tho grand jury ir> investigating the Lucille case.