ALARMING FIGURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26692, 11 February 1948, Page 5

ALARMING FIGURE

PILFERING OF EXPORT GOODS OFFICIALS COMBINE TO SMASH GANGS N.Z.P-A. Special Correspondent LONDON, Feb. 9. Losses of British export goods through pilfering, both at home and abroad, have reached such serious proportions that representatives of exporting firms, insurance companies, shipping, railway, and port authorities have combined in a concerted effort to check thefts and illegal practices. The Sunday Despatch claims that losses have now reached the alarming figure of £50,000,600 a year. Of 69 parcels of goods recently shipped to Venezula by one British firm, only 26 reached their destination. Of 19 packages sent to Turkey, 10 were emptied of their contents before they arrived. Many of the thefts take place along the route or a foreign port, where pilfering is stated to be even more rampant than in Britain. The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce has decided to back a special crime survey with the object of breaking up associations of pillagers and black marketeers. The survey has already shown ramifications of gangs so widespread that investigations will lake three years to complete. In order to guard export cargoes at Bristol, the strength of the dockside police has been doubled, and similar precautions are being taken at a number of other British ports.