BOOTLEGGERS

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3327, 25 July 1931, Page 2

BOOTLEGGERS

CONTRABAND BY MOTOR BOATS. Now Britain has a " Rum Row "—a long, scattered line of foreign ships laden with liquor, tobacco, and other dutiable goods lying beyond the three-mile limit along the North Sea coast.

A great deal of this contraband is brought ashore in night raids by fast motor boats at lonely points on the wild coast of Norfolk and Lincolnshire.

Liquor and cigars are sold not only in the fishing villages but in towns far inland, at prices below the British duty itself. " Bumboats ' from Continental countries, especially Holland, have always traded with British ships in the North Sea, but their numbers have increased greatly in recent years. Many now carry no ordinary provisions, but big cargoes of cognac, rum, liqueurs, and cigars, destined for British consumption.

The increase in the traffic began to be noted a few years ago, when the coastguard services were reduced. The duty of 8s s£d a bottle has given rum-running in England a similar stimulus to that which actual prohibition has given to it in the United States.

Much of the liquor changing hands in the North Sea is of poor quality, but of terrific potency. Raw, unmatured grain alcohol at 90 over proofmore than twice the strength of British potable spirits—is brought ashore to be "broken down," flavoured, and sold as gin. Most of this " industrial spirit" comes from Belgium, whence also large quantities are shipped to the United States for use in cock-* tails.

The transhipment of cargoes at sea is undertaken only in good weather, and it is then that the revenue cutters keep the closest watch on the foreign 'bumboats." In many British fishing towns ancient inns that were smugglers' haunts a century ago are to-day meetingplaces of rum-runners of the new sort. There deals in smuggled liquor are transacted, and plans are made for bringing it ashore and taking it inland by motor lorries.