“ RUNNING THE CUTTER.”

Hokitika Guardian, 12 June 1930, Page 7

“ RUNNING THE CUTTER.”

SMUGGLING BY AEROPLANE.

If smuggling in the Old Country is no longer carried on with the adventure and romance that surrounded it iu the old days, it has taken many

generations to impress any considerable number of persons with the idea that trading in contraband goods is wrong; to tin’s very day the illegality of smuggling is recognised rather than the immortality.

“Yet th c way of the modern smuggler is hard, and Customs dodging is a furtive, unromauLic business. Nowadays there are no gangs of picturesque smugglers on our coasts, blit still the increasing battle of wits goes on between the autlioritie and the evaders of taxes. With modern appliances such as motor-cars, motor-launches, yachts, and even aeroplanes, offering formerly unknown facilities for the transference of goods, smuggling is carried on in a manner and to an extent littie known by the general public.

Before the old Coastguard which kept a very much vigil was abolished, and a very much smaller body called the Coast Watchers took its place, every inch of coast was under vigilant eyes. There wore thousands of Coastguardsmen, with telescppe to the eye >r under the arm, patrolling the loney cliffs, always alert and never failing in their duty. They had their regular heats like policemen, and no

•muggier could escape their vigilance. r ndeed. there were no smugglers except a few who managed to evade o”Jinary Customs officials, and as there was no smuggling the Government decided that there sould he no Coastguards.

ADu who had served for years in the Navy and were serving as Coastgunrclsmen were told to go into private seclusion. An attentuated less expensive organisation was formed, and the Coast Watchers came into existan.ee. Owing, however, to the smallness of their number it is impossible for the Coast Watchers to

watch the coast. The} 7 do their best, undoubtedly, hut the area which a man is now supposed to cover is so vast that adequate supervision is out of thc question.

UNGUARDED COASTS

Miles of coast are open to any smuggler who likes to approach our waters. There is nothing to ptop a man from chartering a motor-boat, loading it with contra Whet nt a Continental pdrtj and landing the whole cargo at some quiet pai't of the English oi‘ Scottish coast, or even In a harbour 1 , without being seen or arousing anyone’s suspicion. This is what is going on to-day. It is also known that foreign boats are being met by smugglers a. few 7 miles out at sea and contraband is being put on board. The small crafts then return unmolested to the coast to make a highly profitable deal.

The most up-to-date method employed by the modern smuggler is to land “duty free” goods by aeroplane. The advantages of this plan are obvious. In Sussex, for instance, there are great ptretcihes of lonely down land whore an aeroplane can land unobserved. Erom tli 0 ’plane “the stuff” is transferred to a car which runs along the short grass for a mile or two and then turns on to the high road. After that, who is to challenge it ? Many of the South Coast residents ai‘o aware of what is going on. hut the old smuggling tradition still holds, and none of them over seems to think of giving information to the authorities.

Many thousands of pounds are lost to the revenue every year owing to the ingenuity and recklessness with which these amazing efforts to defeat tli 0 prohibition laws are conducted—even by adventurous women, some of whom use their own yachts—but a goodly number fall into the net of the Coast Watchers or the Customs officials. This is proved by the fact that last year no fewer than 8201 seizures of smuggled goods were made, including large quantities of spirits and tobacco. and that 3431 persons were convicted of smuggling and mulcted in penalties amounting in the aggregate of £17,788.

The amount of smuggling by tourists is comparatively small and does not entail a serious loss of revenue. It is for those who make a constant business of smuggling that a constant watch has to ho kept. They are always trying new dodges, but at. a rule these are quickly discovered—even clever ruses which deppnd for their success on colusion between the smugglers and persons in London are very often frustrated by the Customs sleuths.

WOAIEN’S AVILES

Women are more subtle than men in their method of smuggling, but their efforts generally end in a tearful collapse and a plea to be permitted to pay the duty and go. Until recently a favourite trick among women was to wear several pairs of si[k stockings and dec)ar e a few others. But this became too general to succeed, and is now very rarely practised. Other devices are adopted, but these are also becoming well-known to Customs and Preventive officers.

It is believed that, women are often employed as confederates of professional smugglers. Posing as representative of dress establishments in Paris and Berlin they declare to the Customs officials on this side silk dresses and other garments which they assert to be “samples.” These they carry in a special bag which they open with alacrity. Very often, however, it is found that they have concealed many more sd=Clillod “samples” among their personal baggage. Some silk garments are so valuable that it is well worth the expense of repeated journeys to Paris and back in an attempt to smuggle them through.

The authorities are satisfied that they have now to deal with a very mvch cleverer type of smuggler. Special inquiry officers are at work to block channels by which goods may he side-tracked past the Customs. The authorities have, in act, declared war on women smugglers whose clever and daring have recently made the work of detection increasingly difficult.

But there is another and no less serious aspect of smuggling which engages the attention of the authorities. Undesirable aliens are not infrequently smuggled into England. They are dumped on our unprotected coasts without any Coastguardsmen or other organisation to stop them. These aliens have always plenty of inoiiei , some of them are returned deportees, and to find their whereabouts is one of those difficult tasks to which only the skill and ingenuity of Scotland Yard detectives is equal.—“ Glasgow Weekly Herald.”