SILK SMUGGLERS.

Matamata Record, Volume XIII, Issue 1110, 31 March 1930, Page 6

SILK SMUGGLERS.

REVELATIONS IN LONDON. Revelations were expected in Lon---*don recently indicating the extent to which silk smugglers have evaded customs duties on frocks and underclothing of the “ latest Paris styles ” offered for sale in some of the cheaper London shops. An intensive war has been declared on the smugglers by the customs officials, who have been instructed to close loopholes by which various articles, chiefly women’s fashion frocks from Paris,, evade the import duty. For some time the authorities (remarks the London Sunday Dispatch) have suspected a number of regular travellers, among them several attractive English women and French women, whose periodical journeys to and from Paris have continued without interruption for some months past. . Expert official valuers have discovered that thousands of pounds’ worth of • silk goods have filtered through the customs nets ever since the duty was first imposed, and that the traffic, which is directed from Paris, has been oij the increase. Travellers, when caught, have told a plausible story, but the most naive explanation was put forward by a woman, who declared that, as Mr . Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has intimated that he will not renew the duties under the Safeguarding of Industries Act, it was not necessary to pay the duty, as the Government evidently did not agree with the imposition ! Suspected smugglers have been allowed to pass through the ports without suspicion being aroused; but their movements from the moment of landing, however, have been closely watched by detectives of the customs# who have shadowed them on the boat train and followed them to their destinations in London. It was lately believed that the ringleaders of the organisation had been detected, and important developments were expected. A number of shops which had offered silk ffocks and women’s underclothing of the “latest Paris styles, direct from our Paris agents,” ‘were

becoming anxious, as the authorities have given no indication as to when or where the blow will fall. Revenue detectives are determined to put a check to the traffic, and are waiting until all the principals can be “roped in.”