PILFERAGE AT LONDON DOCKS.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 April 1921, Page 4

PILFERAGE AT LONDON DOCKS.

A CAPTAIN’S SUGGESTION. j j LONDON, February 24. jj , As a dock worker was passing through j , the dock gates on his way home the j other day he was discovered to be wear- . ing £l5O worth of silk stockings, j There were 144 pairs of them, and they j were wound x'ound tlio man s body and j limbs so skilfully and uniformly as al- j most to escape detection. This arrange i ment of them must have meant almost . complete undressing, and must have | taken a considerable ' Tho case was mentioned in the course 1 ; of an interview by Captain Noakes, , Superintendent of Discharge of the New Zealand and Federal Shipping ! Companies, who considers that trade [ ! unions connected with the transport . industry should take an active part in suppressing pilfering. The unions need j to revise their attitude to this problem. , , At present, if one .of the members is j ' convicted of theft the conviction carries ; no stigma with it, and no penalty is imposed by the union, j As Captain Noakes points out, pilter- ! ing hits the whole community, because tho very heavy losses that are being incurred are, of necessity, passed on to tlio consumer in tfie form of lngier prices. “Magistrates,” he savs, “are far too lenient. In many cases m which men are found with goods on them it is very difficult to prove exactly whore they have been taken from, anc the charge has to be made merely one of unlawful possession, for which, be- : low a certain value, only a fine can be imposed. On the other hand, I remember a Magistrate some years ago announcing to the Court that lie would in future givo imprisonment instead of ' flues, and, starting with the offender before him gave him a month, and ad- ' vsed him to tell his mates when he ' came out. That had an excellent effect.” ; Some London docks are enclosed only by a fence 10ft or so high, on the outside of which is an open space. It is quite simple for a ‘.nan particularly at i night, to throw stolen goods over the fence to be picked up either by a ' waiting confederate or by himself later on. Captain Noakes says there ought to he roads round the docks patrolled at • irregular intervals. “More police and | more supervision are required. Exani- ; ination of vans leaving the docks ought |to bo more thorough—it is quite easy ' for them to got out with more than ! they are supposed to contain—a case of ; butter or a crate of cheese, or a car--1 case of lamb. On the way up to Smithi iield tho vanrnan pulls up at a coffee : shop and tho surplus is unloaded. ; There ought to be somebody to drop in on that shop: ‘Hullo, a hundredweight of butter: let’s ! ; >ok at the in- , voice !’ Barges, too, should he liable to inspection at any time to see that ; what they contain can be accounted for. At present they are covered by ! no more than a tarpaulin.” - Tlio evil of pilferage at the docks has ■ grown to such an extent since the war : that many shipping lines find that ' claims amount on the average to about £2OOO a voyage. It is interesting to ; note that both ship-owners and mer- • (limits agree that in their experience a large proportion of the pilferages occur : before the shipment of the goods—an j expert member of the Committee of ' the London Chamber of Commerce puts j the figure at as high as 70 per cent, i No progress apparently was made by I thi' deputation from the Committee j that waited on the Home Secretary a i few weeks ago, for the Government | adopted the view that exact legal eviI dence must be available before any I steps could be taken to cope with the j evil. Tt is not unnatural that shipj owners and merchants alike were dissatisfied with this attitude, as they feel 1 that tho amount paid in claims is it- ! sufficient evidence to justify the 1 more energetic measures. The Council ! of the Chamber of Shipping has taken j steps to constitute a committee of sliip- | owners having peculiar experience of j pilferage claims to deal with the mat- ! for exhaustively. At present the committee is collecting detailed evidence, and is oonsiderinng recommendations for tho improvement of the system of tallying and of watchers.