Border Warfare

Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1935, Page 6

Border Warfare

CUSTOMS & CATTLE SMUGGLERS. ROARING TRAFFIC IN IRELAND. (United Press Association—By Electno Telegraph—Copyright; (Received this day at 2 p.m.) LONDON, July 8. Guns are barking on the Uister-1' ree State border, where lawless bands of cattle smugglers and British Customs patrols are in conflict. Constable McLJhagga, a Customs patrolman, was desperately wounded, while questioning a suspect on the Armagh-Monoghan border. An accomplice fired from the bushes, striking McLlhagga below the heart. The suspect escaped. The shooting was the culmination of British efforts to enforce duties imposed on Free State cattle, and several herds some which, numbering forty to fifty head, and worth £SOO to £6OO, were seized. Nevertheless the smugglers are making large profits buying cattle and reselling them in Ulster. It is feared that traffic will bankrupt North Ireland farmers. The'smugglers will stop at nothing. They raided a number of pounds containing seized cattle, including one in Tyone, where they drove off forty head .after a gun battle with the guards. Britain has spent £750,000 in an efforlj t'o chQck the ilicit traffic, but the Customs patrols are outnumbered by the smugglers who are paying scouts £5 a night to watch the danger points. 1