Jewel smuggler Who Dealt With Mr. A.

NZ Truth, Issue 1034, 19 September 1925, Page 9

Jewel smuggler Who Dealt With Mr. A.

Captured By Smart Customs Men With £17,034 Worth of Gems

OSSHARD has dropped his swag of £17,034 worth of jewels into the revenue of the country, for the Customs confiscated the gems. , He has r>aid a fine of £500 for smuggling those j

jewels into Sydney, and for having m his possession blank consignment forms Bosshard has paid another fine of £50. ; Fair, tall, handsome, well-dressed, but not over-dressed, Bosshard sat with Sphinx-like countenance ■ while vague references to his record were made before Mr. Jennings, S.M., at the Central Police Court, Sydney. . For the most part, he kept his eyes on the floor. He pleaded guilty to both the charges. , TRAVELLING AGENT. Ernest Walter Bosshard is travelling agent for Albert Lang, principal of the firm of Albert Lang, manufac-

BOSSHARD the great has fallen, Bosshard the daring, agent for the hugest organisation of smugglers which ever evaded the Customs. " And to the Australian Customs has fallen the honor of capturing the man who has defied- the excisemen of the East, the laws of France, and the moral laws of the world. Ernest Walter Bosshard, clever Swiss, played his smuggling game as the man m the street plays his game of chess. He knew where every pawn on the stupendous board was placed, and he knew the value of the jewels and where they lay; , His organisation was masterful, and he dodged some of the shrewdest brains of the East. But he fell m Australia.

There was Vetter, who worked m the Parcels Post of India. Vetter fell. Irregularities were noted m the goods that passed his way, and Vetter was dismissed. The .whole staff of Vetter's of--1 fice was cleared out and. a new staff substituted. Vetter eventually was reinstated as a junior clerk, and this man, who had been high m the service, now was junior to a dozen routine clerks. Then there was the mysterious Mr. K. Mr. X., too, slipped. He was relieved of his position. His position placed him m direct contact with his Majesty's Customs, and what he passed on to the firm of Albert Lang was invaluable. The increasing unwillingness of Customs staffs to accept Albert Lang's declarations' made smuggling m the East difficult. Several agents were caught m Japan, but Bosshard got through. RISK OF BLACKMAIL. The largest portion of the goods he successfully landed at Kobe, and forwarded them to Tokyo by post. In Yokohama, Bosshard found the Customs so strict that they examined packages and even pockets thoroughly. Bosshard beat them. He set himself up as a tourist, and began work m Tokyo. However, he made himself known to the local Legation, m case of trouble arising. His biggest customers were Hattorri and ' Yoshimura, who guessed that he had dodged the Customs, but adhered to an unspoken arrangement that it should not be mentioned. So well did they understand Bosshard's methods that Yoshimura advised Bosshard to go to Nikko. while he sounded the market, with the idea of confirming the impression among business men that Bosshard was a tourist, and not one of themselves. These two cunning yellow men knew that they had Bosshard at their mercy. They beat clown his prices shrewdly, knowing that Bosshard would have to give m or be lost completely. But Bosshard had the last laugh. He had .expected that something of the kind would happen, and had previously raised hi.s prices by ten per cent. Hattorri insisted on. a reduction of twenty per cent., and promised to take from £1000 to £1500 worth. Bosshard found that things m Shanghai were not too good. Some of the merchants suspected that his goods had not gone through the Customs. So the smugglers decided to inform j the Shanghai dealers that China and { Japan had not been a payable proposition for years, and that Lang and Co. intended dropping tho territories altogether. SEWN IN HIS CLOTHES. On July 6 Bosshard stepped ashore at Sydney. The Customs, he found, were uncommonly strict, not so much regarding the duty payable on single articles as the contents of each trunk. Every package, even the soiled linen bag, was searched, and Bosshard thanked his stars that he had not wrapped any empty jewel cases which-

• might have given the show away m his dirty washing. The biggest part of his stock was sewn m his clothes. Some cuff links, cheap rings, and other things that made his trunk look full he paid duty on. The gang worked this way. The travelling agent, Bosshard, carried the jewels, while the empty jewel cases were forwarded by post under separate cover. When Bosshard received them he housed his jewels m suitable cases and set about selling them. The Customs passed his goods, but Bosshard found on landing that his empty cases had hot arrived. He had personally sent them from Singapore at the beginning of June so that he could start work m Sydney immediately. After having a look round the city, Bosshard decided against showing the jewels without cases, as he considered the display of jewels without cases gave them an untasteful appearance. In the meantime he set about to find out the standing of various firms, and put up at the Hotel Australia. Every Excise H.Q. m the world knew that a big, wealthy organisation was at work smuggling jewels m a way so clever that it absolutely defied discovery. The Sydney authorities were on the alert. ALERT CUSTOMS. They knew more about things than Bosshard dreamt, did these shrewd " Australians. And Bosshard did not know the conditions of the country sufficiently well to succeed. He started off by selling at prices which seemed too good to be true. A prominent gem merchant dealt from him, and his suspicions were aroused, it is said. He informed the Customs, it is understood, who were already watching the newcomer. Sergeant Shakespeare; of the Water Police, and Excise Officers Bradley and Scott got to work, and visited Bosshard eventually at the Australia. What they learned during that interview was what the excisemen of the world had been seeking for months. The courtly Bosshnrd was arrested on charges of smuggling and with having m his possession ■. the blank invoices which had arrived by post. More than the Customs the gem smugglers feared their friends. They were obliged to go carefully with each new agent. Would he blackmail them? Would he put away their game? It was the same m China and m Japan, and the principals feared that tho ill-fated Vetter and the mysterious Mr. -K. might turn upon them and insist on blackmail. For the knowledge they had wou'.d have rendered many people liable to big fines and penalties, and it would have meant thousands to Albert Lang. Bosshard had worked the whole business out to a fine art. He issued instructions to forwarding 1 agents to see that the superscription "open on this side" was on the lid of the case. PACKING METHOD. Pie recommended that . the dearer pieces of jewellery should be packed

leside Story Organisation of an Gang

first m the cases, while the cheaper articles were placed m the ' two top lashers. The articles m the top layer, he urged, should be invoiced at thirty to fifty per cent., while the dearer ones m the lower layers should be put down at about twenty -five per cent. Consignments, he ordered, should not be made m the following- manner: — Firstly, m thick, registered letters. Secondly, friends, people not connected with the business should not be given goods to bring to the firm's warehouses, as there was always the danger of blackmail sooner or later. When goods were sent as samples, "No Commercial Value," or "Printed Matter," the packing, he contended, should be extraordinarily strpng, so as not to risk the damage of the articles. . - • The smuggler carries around with him a most expensive wardrobe. He has no fewer than twenty white suits for wear m the tropics, and his pyjamas are silk. All his clothps he carries m a great moveable wardrobe, and his overcoat, specially designed for weai* when walking ashore with a few hundreds,

or maybe thousands of pounds' worth of jewellery, exudes wealth. It has big pockets m the hack m which a ham could be carried. Before his arrest Bossharcl placed m Sydney two batches of jewellery, one worth £6371, and. the other worth £6800. Many of ' these jewels were prominently displayed m the windows of Sydney jewellers' shops. Bosshard booked his passage back to Singapore by the Tasman, which left Sydney on August 22. Where he goes after that, or if he disappears en route, is a question which he will have to solve. For his reputation is world-wide, and there i 3 nowhere that the Customs will no! pounce upon him.