MYSTERY PLANE.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19880, 8 May 1936, Page 9

MYSTERY PLANE.

SMUGGLING SUSPECTED. EXCISE OFFICERS ALERT. LONDON, April 16. Customs officers are patrolling a lonely stretch of coast between Folkestone and Dover, watching for a mystery plane, says the correspondent of the Daily Herald. Twice within the past month on successive Thursday nights, as dusk was falling, the machine, believed to he of foreign origin, has circled over the cliffs and landed in a meadow at (lapel, near here. Efforts to trace the registration number or pilot have failed. On the second occasion a car met the mystery plane and packages were transferred from the machine to the ear. Since that time the plane has not been seen again. The landing-place is within half a mile of the Channel. Customs* Theory. Several months ago reports were received that a plane was making unauthorised landings in Ihe same ; ,rea. hut a watch on that occasion Melded no clue to Ihe pilot’s identity. Customs authorities are investigating a theory that the plane is connected wil!» the international organisation which controls smuggling hv air. A secret conference was held recenfTv In Paris—attended hy delegates from all important countries—to find wavs of suppressing the Illicit traffic. Tt, Is alleged that planes are being used to convey drugs between France. Relgium. Germany and Britain. At the head of the smugglers there is believed to he a big organisation in Paris. Customs authorities have been trying for months lo trace its agents.