CAR SMUGGLERS

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIV, Issue 6094, 27 August 1947, Page 5

CAR SMUGGLERS

FROM EIRE TO ENGLAND HUGE" PROFITS MADE Traps are being set for men who have been making thousands of pounds a week smuggling American cars from Eire into London's West End. S ' /

Customs and Board of Trade officials have started investigations in England,, states the Daily Express. Officials in Northern Ireland, where the cars are taken for registration, have been told to ask this Question: "Where did you buy that car V

If the, answer is unsatisfactory the car will be confiscated and the buyer prosecuted. ''".'. American cars, taking up half the width of a West End street, are bought in Eire for £650. Then they are:— . .'

Smuggled over the border to Northern Ireland and shipped to Britain. Or:—

Taken over the border on tourist \ tickets, registered, and then shipped over.

This is an Eire Customs offence, for tourists must guarantee to take their cars back. But a fine of about £SO is paid, and added to expenses. These total about 600 by the time sells there for £2,250 to £3,000. Total profit: Around £ISOO. Mr Johnson Davies, secretary of the Motor Trade Association, said ly:- •. ;jfs "•■ ;

"The only legal way to get an American car is with a B.bard of Trade license—and not many licenses are issued.

''lf one or two cars in the West End were confiscated there would be no more smuggling. People would be too scared to buy them." • .>i The following warning by the Board of Trade should prove effective:— • "We are allowing no spare parts for American cars into the country;'* Isolating An Enemy.

American scientists believe that they.are on the road to success in their campaign against infantile paralysis, the disease which disabled President Roofevelt. Dr. Loring and Dr. Schwerdt, of Stanford University, have succeded in isolating the yhus, and the scientists now hopo to be able to find a pure vaccine winch will defeat it. The isolation of this deadly