ILLICIT GOLD TRAFFIC.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5009, 4 August 1926, Page 4

ILLICIT GOLD TRAFFIC.

FLOURISHING IN SOUTH AFRICA.

HEADQUARTERS IN ENGLAND.

There is- little doubt that the recent murders of the two detectives in Kalgoorlie was perpetrated by illicit traffickers in gold, who were caught treating their unlawful Requisitions and wreaked th'eir vengeance upon those whose duty it was to bring them to justice. The illicit gold trade has always, been a problem to the. authorities, and there is little reason to believe that it is very widely practised.

Remarkable 'revelations regarding the extent of the illicit traffic in South Africa, have recently been made. The conspiracj r is centred in the heart of the gold mining industry in Johannesburg, but ramifications extend to England and India. It is* estimated that almost £350,000 worth of gold is dealt with illicitly each year.

The gold is, in the first place, stolen from the many mines that lie alotig the Witwatersrand. It. is not an easy matter to steal gold from a mine. There is constant supervision, as l in the diamond industry, and a special detective department is concerned only with illicit traffic. Yet gold, continues, to disappear froim the mines, and the extent of “I. G. B.” or illicit gold buying is proved by the burg courts each year. These ■convictions have trebled during the past few years, but the traffic continues unabated. ILLICIT BANGLES.

A Johannesburg jeweller, when interviewed, admitted that “under conditions as they are there are; no dealers in jewellery and allied gobds, wholesale, or retail, can grow rich with honesty. Moreover, 99 per cent, of the gold bangles worn by girls in Johannesburg have been obtained in the first place by “LG.B,” He added that he knew of gold bangles of unwrought goild being taken to some jewellers’ shops in parafin tins. The fashion in vogue, for the. wearing of s,lave, bangles by women had been an absolute godsend to the illicit trader, who was able thus to dispose of' his goods' in easy fashino.

The case with wedding rings was almost the Siame. “It is not nice l to think that the ring of fidelity has been obtained by crooked means,” stated this jeweller, “and yet a, great percentage of rings sold in this country are made from metal purchased illicitly.” The Gold Department, which is, supposed to deal with this traffic, s.eems wholly ‘ inadequate, and all kinds of suggestions are being made in the newspapers for dealing with the problem. As there is no hallmarking Act in the Uniqn, it is suggested that, the /Government should take. s,teps immediately to have one instituted for the, protection of the gold industry, and toi have a depot establshed where respectably jewellers could send their goods to be hallmarked. FLOURISHING. Meanwhile the traffic of “1.G.8,” flourishes. Men owning little miserable shanty stores, in the back veldt are used for tjie smuggling of gold out of the country. The store owners make periodica,! visits to England and the Orient, disposing of the gold obtained by the organisation which is said to exist. ..

The extent o£ the traffic was, revealed in a, letter to the; Star’ of Johannesburg by a person prominently connected with the gold industry in South Africa. He assented that the illicit dealing has. now reajched a magnitude which constitutes a scandal and a menace. He pointed put that the importation of jewellery into South Africa was less than £lOO,000 per annum, an absurdly .small figure.

Inquiries were' then made throughout Johannesburg among other persons connected with the gold industry, and it was discovered that there is in existence, an organisation of illicit gold dealers, whose ramifications are so tremendous and: whose dealings are s.o cleverly systematic that 'for 30'

vyears it has defied .The espionage of police and stolen millions of pounds

■ell) money from the goldfields df the Rand.

LONDON HEADQUARTERS'.

> This organisation works through South Afica, but there is a strongsuspicion that its headquarters, are either in London -or Birminghajn. Master minds are at the, head of this organisation, and they are able to cope successfully with all efforts to entrap members df the organisation. Bail, money is immediately forthvoming if one of thejr men is caught. When it is considered that something like £3,000,000 a month is obtained freiijn the gold mines c(0 the Rand, the temptation for 'a,n oragnisation of this kind to steal some of these millions is great. It ,appears that- the Orient 'forms one of the best channels for disposing of gold. Durban, with its open gateway to Bombay and Calcutta, gives a splendid opportunity to smugglers. There are hundreds of! places in South Africa through which smuggling can be done, with safety, and the gold smugglers take full advantage of these opportunitiies. Police .and Custom officials are by no means incompetent, but they are in such small numbers that smugglers find it easy to circumvent them.

Much of th'e gold, of course, is disposed of in South Africa.