LIQUOR SMUGGLING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 88, 12 March 1935, Page 3

LIQUOR SMUGGLING

IN THE UNITED STATES. “Some think that bootlegging in tlie United States has ceased with the repeal of prohibition. ' I can assure you that, it lias not,” stated Mr J. \V. Collins, New Zealand Government Trade Commissioner—in Canada and the United States, when addressing the Palmerston North Rotary Club yesterday. “Prohibition was never effective in the States,” lie added. -“There was a large amount of smuggling, Nassau, in the Bahamas, being one of the headquarters. Fast motor boats or aeroplanes were used to cross the 83 miles of sea to the mainland, and great stores of Scotch or Canadian rye whisky were held at Nassau. I saw no less than 10,000 cases unloaded from one vessel. Under cover of darkness, the liquor was taken to the United States coast, sunk in the sea at certain points, then ‘fished up’ by bootleggers on the mainland, and distributed.

“Another depot,” added Mr Collins, “was a French island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Canadian schooners ran the liquor down the c9ast of Maine, where cargoes were picked up by fishing boats and distributed under cover of darkness. The vessels were sometimes caught and impounded, heavy penalties being imposed on the owners, but most of them, operating for years, escaped. A NEW YORK RUSE. “It became a source of wonder in New York why the contract for cleaning up the city’s garbage should command a higher premium each year, eventually reaching 250,000 dollars for the privilege of its collection. The refuse was clumped 15 miles out to sea in the Atlantic. Finally somebody ‘blew the gaff.’ Large bales of straw were taken out in the rubbish scows and enormous quantities of liquor were brought hack. The scows evaded all the Customs regulations and tied up near the Bronx, the liquor being taken away at night.

“The police in New York,” continued Mr Collins, “knew of 10,000 speakeasies. Admission could be obtained by card, and practically every drink obtained, though expensive. Unfortunately, bootleggers were not content to sell it surreptitiously, and started making wretched wood alcohol. Of a picnic party of 29 who partook of this whisky at Buffalo seven died and 22 were blinded. “It seems that there is s,ome collaboration between bootleggers and hotel clerks. I had not been in a New York hotel 20 minutes when a smiling young man knocked at the door and handed me a card bearing the title ‘J. Washington Lewis, undertaker,’ adding that he was at my service. On being asked what service, he replied ‘We undertake to get you anything you want.’ That included a bottle of drink, which could be delivered in a few minutes.

“This sort of business has been cleared up since President Roosevelt came into office.” continued Mr Collins, “hut the liquor trade is li-eing overdone, with hotels open from 9 a.m. till midnight. Bootleggers have again come in, offering n premium for empty bottles. They copy the labels, including the Government seal, and the public are again flabbergasted, not know l ing whether liquor is genuine or not.”