MIDNIGHT RAIDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21876, 11 August 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

MIDNIGHT RAIDS

ILLICIT STILLS IN ENGLAND

WAR OF EXTERMINATION " Bootleg " war waa reported a few! weeks ago to have broken out around Leeds, but, unlike America, it waa the Government who were winning—* not the " bootleggers." The most resolute drive ever undertaken against distillers of illicit whisky was being made. It was the sequel to swift raids on suspected places by local police and specially-drafted revenue officers. These raids, which took place in tha midnight hours, are said to have puti some bootleg pioneers out of business. The keynote of the drive was its intense secrecy. Even trusted local revenue officers were being kept in tha dark. } A correspondent of the Sunday Chronicle said: —"The Government id seriously alarmed, and is waging a war of ' extermination.' The authorities are determined to pgevent illicit distilling spreading from the closely-crowdea industrial areas of the North to tha isolated communities of the moors. Int towns it has always been possible to. detect and destroy the illicit stills* But once the 1 industry ' gets a firm foothold on the moprs, the task would be enormous.

" The example quoted is Ireland,where ' poteen ' making has Bpread over the mountains in such a way that the ' thin, blue smoke ' of the illicit still costs the Government tens of thousands of pounds annually. " The root of the present trouble started in Leeds," a special office? said, "and then the spread. Our job now is to stop it from spreading any further."" i . Inquiries revealed the magnitude of the task the police have to face," I know where you can get tons of tha stuff," said an informant. " It is dis* tilled in the houses and the product is advertised by word of mouth, and distributed by hand. " The ' whisky ' is also drunk a good deal by women. They usually mix it with some other drink that will drown the taste. The police have got a hard job in front of them shutting all these stills." . .

Later in the day, says the correspondent, ho was given a drink of thai " whisky." The liquor was white and tasted rather oily. It burned the throat like a red-hot poker. This particular stuff sold at half-a-crown a. pint and costs, it was stated only, about twopence to make. The drive extended to the Tyneside. Bradford, for years a hotbed of the trade, was also watched.