DIAMOND RUNNING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19892, 10 March 1928, Page 5 (Supplement)

DIAMOND RUNNING.

AMERICA'S BIG TOTAL. Mr. Meyer Rothschild, president of the American Jewellers' Association, in giving evidence in Washington, declared that an international diamond ring now smuggled diamonds into the United States at a rate of about £8,000,000 a year for the purpose of escaping the 20 per cent, import tax. This smuggling, ho added, constituted a grave menace to the United States jewellery industry. The smuggled diamonds were now equal to the legal imports, which were decreasing on account of the competition of the smugglers. Mr. George Messer Smith, ConsulGeneral Antwerp, declared that the smuggling originated in and was directed from Amsterdam and Antwerp. He said that Dutch and Belgian smuggling brokers insured delivery of the stones with banks against the possibility of theft by carriers or seizure 6y Customs collectors. The usual cost on illegal importation ranged from 6£ per cent, to 8 per cent. Mr. Philip Elting, collector at the Port of New York, stated that a rigid enforce? ment of the law was impossible. f Mr. John Roberts, treasury agent, said that 50 per cent, of the smuggled diamonds came via Canada, where the.im- |