HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1958-01-16, Page 3Beat Dope oss
lth Triple -Cross
As pretty, twenty - year - old
Connie Pretorius walked into the
bank to collect her firm's cash
she little realized she would
soon be in deadly danger.For
a man had followed her all the
way from heroffice and now he
waslurking outside, waiting for
herto leave.
After five minutes, Connie re
appeared carrying a
satchel stuffed with cash, and
hurried back towards h
The duan, who was well muffled
up to 'avoid recognition,
after her.
'-
leather
er office.
set off
As she was hurrying through
a quiet side street, a short cut
to her office, she felt a sudden
pain in her right arm, and it
began to feel numb. She trans-
ferred the bag to her left hand
and pressed on, though she was
feeling fainter with every step,
Then, through the mists of
unconsciousness, she was dimly
aware that someone was trying
to wrench the bag from her
grasp, but she held it tightly
and struggled forward.
At last, still clutching the
_precious bag, she stumbled into
her office and collapsed. When a
doctor examined her he found
tiny puncture marks just above
her right elbow. She had been
attacked by a new type of pay.
grab bandit -he had jabbed her
with a hypodermic syringe,
hoping she would fall uncon-
scious and drop the bag.
That case, reported from East
London, South Africa, reveals
just one of the many evil uses
to which drugs- are being put
today. And this trading in hu-
man misery is on the increase
all over the world.
Aware of this, the United Na-
tions Commission on Narcotics
is now urging member govern-
ments to increase penalties for
those caught and convicted of
drug trafficking. The call for
stricter penalties was initiated
by France, Turkey, India and
Yugoslavia, countries that suf-
fer much from the activities of
ruthless dope merchants.
In Turkey, recently, an Amer -
kart Narcotics Bureau investi-
gator posed as a wealthy Arab
morphine buyer to help smash a
powerful gang which had its
own secret drug conversion la-
boratory near Ushak.
Here the gang's chemists,
working in a cellar, converted
raw opium into morphine base
from which heroin could be
• produced.
This was smuggled, at fantas-
tic profits, via agents in Syria
and France, to meet teenage and
other drug club needs in the.
United States.
By devious- means, the Amer-
ican arranged•a rendezvous with
the gang's leerier. So completely
was his confidence won -or his
greed excited by the offer of
60,000 Turkish pounds -that he
consented, after due haggling, to
part with sixty-six pounds of
morphine base.
But, coining out of the gang-
sters' lair and seeing the mor-
phine package escorted to the
car he was sharing with a dis-
guised Turkish police agent, the
American quickly senseda dou-
ble-cross in the air.
A man with a rifle stood by.
About ten other figures lurked
in the shadows. It was after
midnight. The American thought
quickly -and decided 'on a dou-
ble-cross of his own. "Step in-
side the oar;" he told the gang's
leader, "and we'll settle up." As
they got in, the engine Feared
into life and, driven by the dis-
guised police agent, the car shot
forward.
The American crashed his fist
into the drug carrier's jaw.
The armed thugs, taken by
surprise, poured a fusillade of
shots after the car. But the po-
lice agents had their money 'in-
tact, an unconscious smuggler,
and a highly incriminating sam-
ple of merchandise. '
Later, a strongly armed police
force raided the hide-out and
seized 1,500 ib. of raw opium
and 140. lb. of morphine, an out-
size haul.
Criminal gangs use drugs not
merely to debase addicts to their.
own great gain, but also to' drag
young and attractive girls down
to their own levels of depravity.
A notorious white slave traf-
ficker from Marseilles habitual-
ly toured cabarets and bars in
respectable quarters of the city,
seeking likely looking girls,
On spotting one, he used all
his guile to entice her to his
fiat. And there told her: "My
dear, you look 'tieed. You must
take one of my 'golden liqueur
specials. You'll feel marvellous
afterwards."
The drink he ,poured out for
her was heavily drugged. And
When she came to, she was the
Mediterranean's width away in
North Africa, in an establish-
ment of evil repute, having been
spirited there in one of the vice
king's speedboats.
Without money, without help
and with almost _no resources,
such a girl's chances of escaping
the life of degradation looming
before her were slim indeed.
Drugs are even being used in
certain districts to procure child
recruits for the North African
slave trade. Not long ago, while
shopping in Lagos, a woman
heard human cries issuing faint-
ly from a large wooden box. She
reported her suspicions to the
police.
Prising open the box, which
had air holes punctured in it,
they found four native children,
each about four years old. All
seemed doped.
The police arrested a man
who showed proprietary inter-
est in the box. When their in-
vestigations are complete they
may know more about a racket
through which a number of na-
tive children have been mys-
teriously spirited away.
Egypt, for years a drug traf-
ficker's paradise, now regards
dope -dealing as a crime more
serious than murder. At Alexan-
dria, not long ago, six drug traf-
fickers were sentenced to life
imprisonment and fined $10,000,
One of them, a caretaker,
pleaded that his wage was only
$*0 a month, and with a wife
and five small children to keep
he peddled hashish merely to
make ends meet. The judge,
however, rejected this plea; the
man, he said, was a trafficker in.
vile death.
- In some fast -living circles in
America, where wealthy clients
or irresponsible teenagers seek
spurious thrills, punch bowls
full of morphine are carried
round by robed attendants.
This poison is not drunk; the
attendant merely fills a syringe
and helps each reveller, when
asked, to ram home a "joy shot."
But these orgies, revolting in
the- extreme, are nothing to the
final curtain which each person
so addicted must take -a long -
drawn agony of craving, pain
and depravity.
At the root ofthis evil are
the well-financed dope gangs,
known to Interpol and other in-
ternational agencies, which use
drugs to dope girls for the bas-
est of purposes and spread ad-
diction among curious, unbal-
anced young people.
Such gangs think nothing of
destroying life for their own
profit.
BLOOD MONEY
Alva Nicholas, 41, is a red-
blooded he-man and boiling with
wrath because the police of
Kansas took a specimen of his
blood - six cubic -centimetres of
it - after he was involved in a
car crash.
The offended man claims
that his blood is worth the equi-
valent'of $10,000 per cubic centi-
metre and he is now suing the
State of Kansas for $55,000 for
the blood taken from him, plus
another for "punitive damages."
6. Cover 27. Relieves
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affirmation vessel
8. Determines 83. Liken
6. Make broader 84. More useful
10. Jiffy 86. Bazaar
11. Word. of 37. wharf
consent 30 AdvanceG.
ACROSS 60. Foe 16. Preceding gradually
1. Possessive 6.7. Male sheep nights 41. Powdery
adjeel lye - DOWN 18. Lyrics 48. Bewilder
4. Dish e1 1. Those in 20. M. no time 45. Stall
greens office 22. Table 46.Born-
2.Denitry 23. Singing voice 47. Tei?ore
8 Manner 2. Piloted 24. Rhythmical 49.' Ocean
12. Meshedfa brie 4. Fastener. - erring 60. Tree
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29. Flower
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34. Owns
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38, Vision
40 Stoats
42. immerses
44 Necessity
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general
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Answer elsewhere on ti is page.
VINE -COVERED COTTAGE - Truly worthy .of that title is this
venerable building near Ash, England. The chimney of the
old house, built in 1615, can just barely be seen peeking out
From the clinging vines at the top of the photo.
A week or so ago I passed
along to you an account of the
latest United States plan to at-
tack the vexing farm surplus
problem over there. It is the
brain -child of that greatly -crit -
lazed Ezra Benson, Secretary
of Agriculture. So here is some-
thing more about Mr. Benson
and his ideas - a dispatch from
Chicago to the Christian Science
Monitor by Dorothea Rahn Jaffe.
,k * *
Time: 1939. Place: A meeting
of farm cooperative leaders in
a Chicago hotel. A newly en-
gaged executive secretary ad-
dresses the rural businessmen
-looks like a good man for the
job, He has an intelligent, cour-
teous way of speaking, a clean,
well -scrubbed look, has had ex-
perience as a farmer, a county
agent, and organizer of cdopera-
tives"in.Idaho; has M.A. degree
in marketing. Name: Ezra Ben
son. 4, '• * *
Now it's 1957. Some of uS
who sat in that audience nearly
two decades ago are once again
hearing this man speak. He still
has the courteous approach, the
well-groomed appearance. But
now, as United States Secretary
of Agriculture, Mr. Benson is a
very controversial person. While
he came here as the featured
convention speaker of the Amer-
ican Farm Bureau Federation,
which approves his policies, he
is, to another farm organization,
anathema. The latter organiza-
tion pictures him as a man bent
on destroying the prosperity of
agriculture. Because of the op-
position he has aroused, some
political leaders within his own
party want to get him out.
* * *
- What are the policies which
have called forth such radically
different reactions? Mr. Benson
reaffirmed them and defended
them here. Standing before
microphones on the vast stage
of Chicago's Civic Opera House,
before some 2,000 men and
women, he reiterated the con-
servative stand which has made
for him violent enemies ever
since President Eisenhower
placed him in his cabinet:
*
"To support prices of farm
products artificially, continually
and substantially above com-
petitive levels -at levels which
destroy markets and build up
burdensome surpluses - this is
clearly contrary to the farmers'
interests. We should prune the
tree of enterprise, not uproot it."
* * *
Mr. Benson outlined for his
farm audience three proposals
which, he will present to the
next Congress. All are aimed at
obtaining legislation which will
relax certain governmental con-
trols affecting farm operations
and expand markets for crops.
Nothing new, but wholly in line
with the Secretary's thinking.
As for this talk about demand-
ing his resignation, Mr. Benson
referred to it without enibar-
rassment. "My personal attitude
is one of resolution rather than
resignation," he told the Farm
Bureau people.
4,4,
,Mr. Benson does not need his
present post to keep him occu-
pied. He has a job waiting for
Min. When in 1944 he left the
National Council of Fanner Co-
operatives, of which he was ex-
ecutive secretary, it was to an-
swer the call of The Church of
the Latter Day Saints.
He had received a life ap-
pointment to the church's
Council of Twelve. He ac-
cepted it expecting to remain in
this office all his days. Actually,
he has never given it up, for the
church authorities. granted: Mr.
Benson a leave of absence for
the duration of his work as
cabinet officer. He can return
whenever he finishes the Wash-
ington stint,
* * M
Mr. B'enson has made it clear
that he doesn't expect this to be
soon. The work he began years
ago in Idaho -the promotion of
farmer self-help programs such
as the organization of coopera-
tives and marketing pools -he is
pursuing with characteristic
single-mindedness in the De-
partment of Agriculture. He be-
lieves in it, believes in other
aspects of his program, and be-
lieves in them so firmly that
attacks appear to mean little to
him. * + *
This infuriates his opponents,
but it wins respect in friendly
organizations like the American
Farm Bureau Federation. Here
the comment is likely to be:
Well, you know he's sincere."
To farmers that means a great
deal. * * *
No one can charge Mr. Ben-
son with. inconsistency. Front
those days when he served as
secretary to the organization of
big marketing cooperatives to
the present, he has stood for
policies that will tend to give
the farmer more control over
his own affairs, policies which
he declares are economically
sound for the country as a
whole. *
Regarding these policies he
remarked at the Farm Bureau
convention 1 in his quiet way:
"I have no disposition to re-
treat."
Bendix system with modifica-
tions, and Rambler has given it
up.
Besides high price and 'pro-
duction difficulties, the Indus-
try's decision last spring to de-
emphasize horsepower added to
the factors squelching fuel in-
jection as a replacement for the
carburetor.
Fuel injection is a means - at
present rather complicated - 6f
squirting a spray of gasoline di-
rectly into the combustion ahem -
leers of an engine, The carbu-
retor, on the other hand, mixes
the fuel and air into vapor which
is sucked into the engine, writes
Everett G. Martin in The Chris-
tian Science Monitor.
There is some fuel -saving ad-
vantage to injection - about 10
per cent - but the main selling
point is its increase of engine ef-
ficiency mainly at high speeds.
On the Pontiac, for instance, the
addition of fuel injection raises
the horsepower of an engine us-
ing three two -barrel carburet-
ors from 300 co 310.
Chevrolet had originally in-
tended its injection system to be
used to get maximum perform-
ance out of the Corvette in sports
car races. An engineer said the
decision to offer it on passenger
cars caused difficulties in adapt-
ing it so as to be efficient at low
as well as high speeds. A sports
car driver doesn't mind engine
roughness at low speeds; pleas-
ure car drivers do.
Chevrolet sold 2,570 fuel in-
jection units this year, but get-
ting servicemen trained to take
care of them has been another
problem. Edward N. Cole, Chev-
rolet general manager, said it
will be a long time before fuel .
injection will replace the carbu-
retor, -
After the decision to de-em-
phasize speed and horsepower,
there was some talk of selling
fuel injection on its gasoline -
saving features. It's difficult to
make a case for this, however,
when the high costs are kept in
mind.
Fuel Injection
On 1958 Cars
Fuel injection will be avail-
able on some 1958 cars, but there
won't be much talk about it.
At last year's introduction of
1957 models, when horsepower
was still a big selling point, fuel
injection was one of the most
talked about options by firms
who had it. When it came to buy-
ing it, however, first it wasn't
available - then the cost was
staggering.
Chevrolet and Pontiac's sys-
tem cost more than $400 when it
"finally got into production. Ram-
bler's system was $395, but the
Bendix Aviation Corporation
which fnade it could never get
it into volume production.
For 1958, Chevrolet and Pon-
tiac will still have it available
for the racers and gadget fan-
ciers, Chrysler will offer the
Russians Launch
Atomic Icebreaker
As the massive hull of the
world's first atomic surface ship
slid into the cold waters of Len-
ingrad's Neva River last month,
the Russians proudly announced
the long-awaited launching of
their atomic icebreaker, the
Lenin. The ship, Tass reported,
displaces 16,000 tons (as op-
posed to 8,625 for the U.S's
largest conventional icebreak-
er), is capable of 19 knots in
open water, and can crush its
way through ice 6 feet thick.
Powered by a high-pressure
steam reactor, it "will be able
to remain at sea for several
months" without refueling.
Some U.S. marine engineers
feel that the Lenin's enormous
size and weight are due to Rus-
sia's more massive reactors. But
whatever the reasons, the ice-
breaker has at least one omin-
ous implication for the U.S. She
is scheduled to make Antarctica
a port of call in 1958. If she
does, the Russians will have
available the first real power
source on the primitively equip-
ped White Continent. Although
the U.S. has a bill for a "nu-
clear -powered icebreaking ves-
sel" under study, it will not
come up for discussion until
Congress meets next year.
The United States' first can-
didate for a nuclear -powered
surface vessel was beginning to
take shape at the Bethlehem
Steel Coss shipyards in Quincy.
Mass., when Adm. Jerauld
Wright, NATO's Supreme Allied
Commander, Atlantic, was the
principal speaker at the laying
of the keel for the guided -mis-
sile cruiser U.S.S. Long Beach.
When commissioned in 1961 the
Long Beach will displace 14,000
tons. For sailors used to gun
batteries and smokestacks -the
Long Beach will have neither-
she will present a startling sil-
houette with her thick cylin-
drical radar towers packed with
the latest in detection and elec-
tronic countermeasure devices.
Next on the Navy's list of mo-
UNDAY N11001
LESSON
By Rev. R. Barclay Warren
B.A., B.A.
The Church's Power
Acts 1:4-8; 2:1-11
Memory Selection: But ye shall
receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon yout
and, ye shall be witnesses unto
me both in Jerusalem and in aU
Judea, and Samaria, and unto
the uttermost part of the earth.
Acts 1:8.
"These that have turned the
world upside down are come
hither also." (Acts 17:6). So said
the envious unbelievers when
Paul and his party came with
the Gospel message to Thes-
salonica, What was the source of
the amazing power of the early
cizureh? Jesus had promised his
disciples on the eve of His as-
cension that they would receive
power to witness when they re-
ceived the power- of the Holy
Ghost. Ten days later the Spirit
came upon 120 believers in the
upper room. Their hearts were
purified. (Acts 15: 8, 9.) They
were filled with holy Iove for
one another and for their ene-
mies. They had power to suffer
and be kind, Stephen, the fist
martyr, prayed as he was being
stoned to death. "Lord„ lay not
this sin to their charge,"
"With great power gave the
apostles witness of the resur-
rection of the Lord Jesus: and
great grace was upon them all,"
On the day of Pentecost these
men of Galilee were able to tell
of Jesus to the people gathered
in Jerusalem who spoke many
different languages. Surely this
was evidence to those who spoke
and to those who beard that the
Gospel was for all men every-
where. We heard a returned
missionary tell how that shortly
after reaching the field the na-
tive House Boy indicated that he
wanted to become a Christian.
Neither knew the language of
the other, She started to pray
and to Iter surprise found herself
able to pray with understanding
for the boy's salvation in his
language. He believed on Jesus
Christ. But then she had to turn
to learning the language in the
difficult way that all do. The
temporary gift had met a definite
need.
We must admit that the church
isn't turning the world upside
down today. We are thankful
for all that is being done in the
name of the Lord Jesus But in
the face of the world's need,
it isn't enough. Peter, after
Pentecost, spoke of the Holy
Ghost, "whom God hath given
to them that obey him." (Acts
5:32). Are we failing in obedi-
ence? God wants to give His
Spirit that we may have power
to witness.
dern ships are an atomic air-
craft carrier and a destroyer (to
be called a frigate). When these
are completed, the Navy
f rfeels
the
it will have prototypes
task force of the atomic age.
In a test -towing tank on Eng-
land's Isle of Wight, scientists
of the Saunders -Roe Co. were
putting experimental "fishlike"
hull designs through 11erisk un-
n -
der -water paces.
their studies is an atomic sub-
marine tanker larger tban the
Queen Elizabeth and twice as
fast.
Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking
da CI31
-133 '3v8t1s 33
S IBt/',31\i21ONi
ot„1 R„J,l. uwwnb ..
BREAKING THE ICE - The icebreaker Glacier plows through the ice pack at McMurdo Found,
Antarctica, making, a path 'for supply ships, which bring in needed materials for members of
Operation Deep Freeze 111,