THE SMUGGLERS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2859, 25 August 1916, Page 6

THE SMUGGLERS

FOOD-RUNNERS ON THE DUTCH FRONTIER

(Charles Tower, "Daily Mail's" Special "Correspondent in Holland.)

Amsterdam,

The Germans have organised the smuggling trado out of Holland with their usual thoroughness. It is true that the total amount of contraband which gets out of Holland by moans of smuggling is possibly not sufficient in the course of a year to affect the duration of tho war by a fortnight (1 believe that is a recognised calculation), but one fortnight of war means thousands of lives as well as many millions of money. Therefore the lighthearted way in which tho smuggling business is obviously regarded by some Dutch authorities (not all!) is by no means justified from tho point of view of the Allies. And the Allies have evidently made their point of view un* derstood, for I learn that the Dutch Government has recently appointed yet another thousand marechaussees (a kind of special police), in addition to the two thousand who were appointed some weeks ago. . From a • frontier correspondent I have received a description of the scenes in a well-known smuggluig village in Holland. If you walk round the outskirts ,of the village during the daytimo you will he surprised to see lying about on the grass in the sunshine a considerable number of ablebodied men, well dressed, and clearly not in tho least vagabonds. They are talking low or simply lying and smoking or even asleep. A little farther on a factory is being evacuated and transferred inland because here on the frontier it is impossible ,to keep hands. Within a few days of his arrival, the new factory-hand has' joined the ranks of the smugglers. The Drowsy Men. The village consists of one long street of houses running practically parallel to the frontier, which is only about 300 yards, away. A little before sunset you will see the men who havo been drowsing in the sun all day get up and stoll with, the most innocent air in the world towards the street. They disappear behind the houses, and a deep peace broods for a little time upon tho whole village. Suddenly from somewhere sounds one shrill whistle; there is an interval and then the signal is repeated twice. (Of course, the signal varies: sometimes it is not an audible one at all.) And then from, behind the row of houses dashes a company of men, often as many as 200 of them, bearing loaded sacks or small bags on their shoulders. They spread like a fan and dash towards the frontier line,. some of them apparently right into the arms of soldiers watching tho frontier. What are the soldiers to do? Even if they were quick enougli they could hardly shoot more than a few of the Smugglers, since the latter are, perhaps, forty to' one. Some shots do ring out, and probably two or three of the smugglers tumble into the grass or the sand, almost always with a shot in the leg. But probably out of the 200 fully 190 havo got across the fron-. tier, where the German State-organis-ed receiving, station awaits the hags of fat (especially fat!) or other contraband brought across. Then the smugglers disappear and dribble home by a roundabout route across another part of the frontier. Somewhere and somehow tho profits aro-shared out, and tho mon who were wounded as well as any of the smuggling scrimmage who may have been arrested beforehand receive their proper share and also compensation for arrest or injury. If this particular village becomes rather tod warm a corner the smuggling scrimmage takes its afternoon siesta-'some way off and the rush is made from a new lair. ' Rugby Football Methods. Many of the soldiers.have a considerable sympathy with tho smugglers., The rush-tactics appeal,, perhaps, to their sporting instincts, and in any case they have not the -least .desire to.hurt men who arc "only; smuggling." So they fire low, • are, not anxious to "make examples," and it is difficult, no doubt, for. them to consider i shooting these people at all as part of the' soldiers' trade. Sometimes, thero results a regular "scrum" on the goalline (tho frontier). A soldier will grab one of the smugglers, collaring him low, according to the legitimate L Rugby game, and fully intending to bring him down first and capture the .ball, which is- the smuggler's sack, afterwards. But almost equally often the soldier happens to have a lairie leg that evening, or else the - smuggler happens to be unusually l slippery, or the soldier trips up just when he has got his arms round sack ami smuggler, and the latter runs on grinning and makes a touch-down.

Frankly, the. marechausseo is a different and a 'less sympathetic goalkeeper. He is not paid to be a sportsman, but to stop smuggling, and the result of his efforts is unquestionably considerable, so that the "great game" has unpleasant risks,, because you never know when the soldiers may have been replaced by the special police. ■..'. . Such is my correspondent's story. It reads more like a. romance of Troy Town than of the Great War. . You have to shako yourself to remember that these smugglers, bribed with. German gold, are in a way responsible for some part of to-morrow's casualty list, a, fact which they themselves ; will never, never realise until they top are fighting Germans fed by "friendly neutrals." And from that fate the victory of the Allies is about the only thing under Providence that <>an save them.