SMUGGLING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1666, 25 January 1917, Page 4

SMUGGLING.

ON THE GERMAN-DITCH FRONTIER.

Along Hr frontier run- ;i narrow road, and iit the side *>i' ii a eriss-ciws-ed barbed win* about five fee! Idyll. At interval' of IiOO yards or .-.a are posted German sentries with li\cd bayonets. Beyond the wire is a -era" of little cottage garden-, am! I lien the roll ayes themselves. These are the smugglers’ cottages. Now and ayain a German, anxious !■; slip away Indore he can he sent. In \ erdnn or the Somme, has arranged io ohiain smugglers’ riot lies and Join the happy hand going hack wili; the silver or paper reward for (heir labours. I Sul the price is hiyh hc'-an-.e i he -muggics are very un-

willing 1" sh*iv. anyone at any price the )C‘,i| linlc by-ways which enable ihcm io conic and go nudistuibcd by i lie benevolent German sentries or Ilie i/idcl: 1 swni ii'i’siiien who have InilcGy become I"-- benevolent. As much as low has hcen paid for tin* rights o' (lie Smuggler-’ Way into 1 iidland.

,Vb; 1 1 e ver i- p'-.riable in small cum- - - i- lor sale i.e; e b ■ ;:e f’“.mllcr-

aiarkcl of the iiiyid. And I lie prices, for German condition-, are In no

mean- e.xt ra vagam. Von can get a pound of best Dutch fre-h hatter for fis (ill, nnd a pound of bacon for

a.- iiillc a- 7- or Ss, and fer chocolate in long, 1 kill wafer- ymi will not pay more t! i:. 11 2- (id for a i)imrler of a pound.

(>l' eouivi.*, when ilk* huyer has carried the purchase in his or her knapsack to some Westphalian town or village far from the frontier the orice I'apidly /i-es, and you may be asked Ids per pound for smuggled bacon.

There is very little baryaiuiny. for there is a fixed price for every commodity and there is never enough to satisfy nil wonld-he purchaser.-.