HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1927-11-03, Page 61
A
tip
SMUGGLING FLOURISHES
- IN MERRY ENGLAND
1•1811.1•.•••••••••••••••••1101,•••••••••,•,....•
Many Are The Wiles Used By Those Who Would Evade
Paying Customs Duties,
BY An Ex-Exeise Officer.
Looking hack on forty years' ex-
perience of smuggling, 1 am amazed
sometimes at the little that the man -
in -the -street knows of the vast rami-
fications of a trafilc that extends frOm
Shanghai to 'Frisco, from Old Loudon
Town to Singapore, in every sort cif
valuable commodity for which the Ex-
cise Officers, of half the nations of the
world have their particular tariffs.
Now smuggling, albeit without the
glainor. of the old days, has broken
out anew on the south coast of Eng-
land. The revelations, published for
the first time a little time ago, en-
abled the authorities to put a tempor-
ary check on the activities of these
smugglers, but the little ports of the
Channel, only a few miles from the
French cdast, are an ideal ground o
operations for organizations handling of it. He was merely an agent of the
swift craft with skill, and co-operat- vast international drug -smugglers' or -
Ing with French fishermen, .and the ganization.
trouble has started all over again, This haul might have been regarded
The real business of smuggling is a as a triumph in itself; but what the
trade that involves big deals in pre- authorities really wanted was not so
cious stones, forbidden drugs, silk in much that particular consignment as
built and suchlike merchandise, and the information which would reveal
the devices adopted by the profession- the movements of the men who gov-
al smuggler to get his loot through ern the trade. The Jap, however, re-
fused to "split." He merely sniffed
and paid up.
Hong Kong is a hot -bed of smug-
glers, and, speaking from several
years' expel cence there, I should
think it always will be. For leis very
difficult to get at John Chinaman
when he is on the smuggling tack.
He is as cunning as twenty foxes, and
very, very resourceful.
And he is unlike most other smug-
glers in that he combines his illicit
trade with violence and murder and
high seas piracy.
Ingenious Chinese Opium Runners.
I remember once watching from
the wharf of Yaumati, which is con-
veniently near the police station, an.
old sampan riding idly.
Something about her, however, held
my attention, a complete absence of
life, a peculiar stillness. As I focused
her through my glasses, I suddenly
saw a buoy go overboard. Then there
was stillness again, as the black ob-
ject, bobbing in the water, was car-
ried shorewards by the tide.
A few moments later, 1 noticed a
small boat pulling idly from off shore.
It made in an erratic course towards
the drifting buoy. 'When it came
alongside, the buoy was taken aboard.
The sequell--for at this point, my
suspicions aroused, I got busy—svas a
big haul of pure opium.
These Chinese operators are bold
and desperate men.
I recall one occasion, when, in their
mouldy old sampan, they drew along-
side a liner at anchor, boarded her
like a lot of monkeys, and had the
master locked in his cabin in two
minutes, and the officers roped up..
They tooq off gold, spirits, and
other valuables, and got clean away.
The plight of the ship was discovered
only when the pirate smugglers were
-*ell away. —
Meanwhile five of the crew lay but-
chered on the deck ,and the rest, be-
ing Lascars and not overburdened
with that quality known among sea-
men, as spunk, preferred life to fight.
I doubt whether smuggling will
ever be put down entirely.
The game of wits, with rich re-
wards for victory, appeals to lawless
spirits. There will always be smug-
gling. But as the years go by, the
dice become more and more loaded
against he smugglers, and the game
becomes more and more easy for the
Excise men.
brought from old England ostensibly
to adorn an American home,
While I was in 'Frisco word passed
by the Secret Excise Service that an
attempt Aas to be made to land a vast
consignment from Hong Kong on Cali-
fornian territory. That consignment
never got through, The Excise , spy
service is pretty thorough.
What happened was this. A Japan-
ese arrived from Marseilles and land-
ed in Hong Kong. Unknown to him
he had been watched from the mo-
ment he left Basle in Switzerland.
Without a trace of nervousness, he
submitted to his fine leather luggage
being ripped up. ' That little man,
with the big baggage, had no less
than 2,500 ounces of cocaine among
his possessions!
Was he working alone? Not a bit
are truly. .ingenious and worthy of a
more laudable object.
When I was a young man I served
a time in the American Customs
vice. I recall a ease which nearly
to my dismissal some months af-
e I had donned my smart uniform
.1 taken my stand behind the Cus-
.-house counter.
ae passengers—many of whom bit-
ly our thorough methods
—had been passed through with about
the usual number of wealthy women
trying to conceal jewels mixed up
in the flimsy fabrics of their intimate
baggage (jewels going into the U.S.A.
are taxable) and the crew was land-
ing.
Customs officers sometimes get a
bit negligent after a spell of hard
work at passing a big liner's passen-
gers. I did on that occasion.
The third engineer swung up to the
Customs counter carrying a batter-
ed old hag. He was a Scot, and a
franker face I never saw. "Ye'll no
be wantin' to speer in me traps?" he
asked. I nodded, "Go ahead," and a
moment later 1 saw the Scot making
his way towards the street.
Amazing Haul From "Honest Scot."
Ten minutes later he was back in
the shed. A senior officer had him
by the arm He was very indignant.
Well, we opened up his bag, and there
among his personal belongings, care-
lessly wrapped up in dirty old shirts
and dungaree trousers was a collec-
tion of precious stones that was ulti-
inattely valued at £200,000. How
came a ship's engineer to be tramcing
in diamonds?
The facts were as follows:—The
Scot had been in and out of New York
for years. He had fallen in with one
of the .biggest diamond smuggler's
operating in New York. The proposi-
tion had been put up to him as being
both highly profitable and, for a ship's
engineer—the last person. landing t�
be suspected—very safe.
For five years, with immunity, this
young fellow had been landing big
consignments from the New York
man's Amsterdam confederates, and
the amount of excise duty evaded
must have run into seven figures.
It was later discovered that the
grimy ship's engineer was the proud
possessor of a fine Brooklyn apart-
ment, where he had a smart and
doubtless extravagant American wife.
But his was only one of the many
tricks employed for smuggling dia-
monds into the United States.
One of the smartest tricks was that
of the woman who landed with the
tiny coffin alleged to contain her baby
being brought home for burial.
The doctor, however, proved curl-
ous--.-the coffin was opened. There
was the baby right enough, but also,
beneath the little body, a leather bag
containing a big consignment of dia-
monds of the first water!
Women are, in my experience, the
most adroit, nerveless, and cleverest
of diamond smugglers.
1 have seen a quantity of stones ex-
tracted from the high heel of a WO -
man's shoe; from the quarter -inch
shallow bottom of a suitcase; from
the fluffy masses of a yellow -haired
beauty's abundant locks. The smug-
gling ring has so far proved too strong
for the combined jewel -trade interests
of America, and even the ten per
cent. of the value of precious illicit
cargoes offered for their discovery'
has not enabled the sleuths to stamp
out the trade.
But beside the drug-srauggling traf-
fic, that in diamonds shrinks into in-
significance.
When I left New York 1 was for a
time with the San Francisco sere4ce,
Therethe chief smuggling we were
up against was the traffic in drink
over the herder and the drug traffic
from the Orient. California has a
considerable Chinese population, and
John Chinaman must have his opium
England Certainly nOt Decadent
These lovely boys own King George and Queen Mary as grandparents.
Mary and Viscount Lascelles. (Left) Hon.. Gerald Lascelles and Hon. George
which these prints were made are by Miss B. Lee.
They are the sons of Princess
Lascelles. The miniatures from
Honesty- Best Policy
How the Yanks' "Four
Straight" Gave Baseball
A Good Name
Commercialism, Professional Base-
ball's worst 'enemy, took a back seat approximately $217,000 in. gate re -
when the Yanks won the world series ceipts for the Sunday contest that
by beating the Pirates in four straight was not to be. Added to Mr. Ruth's
games. Critics of the game are al- salary of $70,6004, this makethe
moat unanimous in accepting that re- "Babe" no mean investineq.
sult as clear proof that baseball, at
least on its higher levels, is now free
from any suspicion of jockeying the
public with "flit" games. The tem-
ptations in this case Were so obvious.
As. Mr. W. 0, McGeehan pointed out
on the eve of the fourth game, an-
other victory for the Yankees would
mean that their business manager
would be obliged to rotund "a trifle
over $200,000 for the fifth game, for
which the customers have paid in ad -
scaliest." In an editorial after the
series was over, the New York Herald
Tribune speculated:
Was it plain sportsmanship or was
it the more businesslike attitude of
enlightened self-intch es t that per-
suaded the powers of professional
baseball to permit the Yankees to
win the world series in four straight?
In any event, as Mr. McGeehan pointe
out, Saturday was a poor day for the
"finger of suspicion." And as a
corollary we like to believe it was a
good day for the sport, or business, of
professional baseball. (At this point
the ghost of Barnum arises to cast
the faintest shadow of a. doubt on
such optimism. There may be some-
thing in the contention that the peo-
ple, including baseball fandom, would
rather be bamboozled than not. Atter
all, the finger of suspicion, repre-
sented a pretty large proportion of
those who follow the national pas-
time, and even cynics prefer con-
firmation to refutation, especially
where bets are involved.)
But avaunt, foul specter! Honesty
is always the best policy, and for
the rest othe facts speak for them-
selves. Only once, in the desperate
ninth inning, did the Pirates purpose-
ly' give "Babe" Ruth his base on balls.
Such sportsmanship cost them the
game, and maybe one or two more
ghmes (the series, to be sure, was
never in doubt), unless one wishes
to lay the blame for their defeat on
MMus's wild pitch.. But the wild
pitch could not have been forestalled,
while the "Babe's" home -run. might
have been, either by the Pirates'
pitcher or by the innocent "Babe"
himself. As for Colonel Ruppert,
the Yankees' proprietor, it cost him
He Never Catches Up
She—"Bill does nothing but run af-
ter girls."
He—"Yes—they all keep just a lit-
tle ahead of him, it seems."
Guest: "This is a very small bit
of ehicken you have given me, waits
er?" Waiter: "Yes, 'sir, but you will
find it will take you a long time to eat
Silences of Sahara
More Than Human
"Product integraph" at M.I.T.
Does Equations and Plot
Curves --Solves in a Fewl
Minutes Intricate Problems!
1 That Would Take Engid.
neers a Month,
1Viatherakalcal Orobieral while&
'would take trained calculatore months
to solve, as well as some which are
Said to be beyond the present range '
of formal mathematics, are salved by
an electrical machine which has been
developed in the department of elec-
trical engineering at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
The machine, called the "product
integraph," is the result of several
,years' work by Dr. Vannevar Bush.,
professor of electric power transmis-
sion, and a staff of research vvorkere.i
It is said to open important fields of
electrical' study hitherto inaccessiblel
because o± the time consumed in
mathematical computations in add
vanced mathematical theory.
The productintegra,ph is a sort of,
electrified adding machine that goes
beyond mere addition or subtraction'
or *siren division and multiplication of
numbers. It deals with equation5
and curces. Integration is. the ma-
thematical way of expressing the sum
of a series' -of numbers whicli vary
according to a given equation. The
mathematician using the integraph
takes the equations he is interested
in and plots them on sheets of paper.
Operators stationed along the length
of the machine pass these sheets
slowly under pointers, keeping the
pointers on the curves.
As the t pointers move up and down,
the power flowing through the, ma -
...chine, which is essentially like an
ordinary watt-hour meter, varies.'
Sundawn in the desert is like sun-
down at sea. The sun descends to a
straight, unbroken horizon and. all
the mid -distance is either flat or un-
dulating even as a gently ruffled
ocean. Then it disappears from eight
sud.denly, as into the sea, quite as if
some, unseen force, impatient at its The number of revolutions of the,
slow descent, had at last with a meter gives the integral or sum de -
mighty pull drawn: it from sight. That
is always ffie impression when watch-
ing a sunset at sea in calm weather,
and it is the same in the. groat desert;
for the desert in many of its aspects
and moods strangely resembles that
sea whicb. once covered it.
Walk through the gathering shad-
ows a mile or so from the Pyramids
and regard the!r changing colors as
the night falls. The gold of the late
afternoon, that mellow hue which
seems most suitable to these land-
marks of fifty centurieh, changes to a
sort of purple which in turn yields to
a somber gray as the sun disappears
entirely. Then, indeed, is it night in
the desert, and one is conscious of a
sensation never experienced else-
where. When the darkness has hid-
den the Pyramidsand nothing can be
seen, except perhaps a dim distant
glow in the slay where lies the great
city of Cairo, it is as if one had
passed entirely from the world, of
human activity. Nowhere, not even
in the remotest parts of the vast
south Pacific, is the sense pf solitude,
so far as concerns mortal things, so
great. It is born mostly of the sil-
ence. One talks of silence here and
there, but there is no silence like the
silence of the desert. It is a silence
as of space itself. It seems to ex-
tend a -way to tmreckonable distances,
to immeasurable depths. It wraps it-
self about one like a garment. Yet
it does not oppress here in the desert.
Rather it exalts. In the conscious:.
ness of vastness all about, intensified
by the great silence, One's conscious-
ness seems to 'expand, to be uplifted
and stimulated even as at the hour
of sunrise at sea. There is solitude
and yet there is no solitude. No
sound of human activity reaches one,
no suggestion of human concerti
merits conflicts with the silence every-
where. Yee there is no feeding of be-
ing alone, deserted, lost.
1Veeeting Miss Nora Bayes, the Am-
erican singer, the other day, she was
asked for a story. She obliged by
narrating the experience of a tender-
foot in her native land who, seeing a
sign in a little Western saloon which
read: "Soft Drinks and Billiards,"
went in and said in his gruffest
tones: "Gimme a billiard." The
bar -tender regarded the man doubt-
fully for a few moments, then seeing
that he really thought a billiard was
something to drink, started: to make
up a mixture of everything he had in
the place, including the' bar polish.
The stranger took the mess, swal-
lower a moutlitul, and turned red in
the face. Game to the last, however,
he gulped down the lot. "How did.
you like that?" asked the bar -tender
"Well,'! replied the tender-
foot, "if I wasn't an old billiard
drinked I'd say it was bilge -water
with a dash of vitriol thrown, in."
Sired, and the machine traces on an-,
other sheet of paper the curve which
is the integral of the equations fed'
into it.
Througbi a second, part of the des
vice the result is integrated a ,secondi
time, which is said to make the ma-,
china doubly valuable, since manY
electrical equations., called those .of
the second order, require a second
integration.
Computations 'which, it is saide
would take an engineer from a month;
to a year to carry out by ordinarY,
methods are thus made on the ma-
chine in from eight minutes to a few
hours, taking at most about halt a
day.
The machine also is designed so
as to reverse the process, and plot the
carves which must be followed by the
pointers to give a certain resultant
curve, the motor then moving , the
tables instead of the recording peneil.'
"ADAMSON'S ADVENTURES"—By O. Jacobson.
• 7.
Mrs. Owl—"I'm terribly worried
about our daughter, running around
to those horrid day clubs."
Where's Your Lid?
Have you en old Hat But a good
one to good to throw away, a fine
Fait, that needs, Renovating and
Blocking, a Hat that Regairir Brush-
ing up or a Firest, Grad, Panama.
That you 'would like Bleathes if you
could „Old an expeart to do the work
Right
Let us show you what Hattera can
do I make Hats and 1 Respet them we
can Promise you 'Merlon—From a
Waco business handbill.
A young lady addressed a literary
And here, in passing, X may say lion who sat at her left ata banquet
that 'the opium -smuggling traffic is given in his honor: "I was reading
not run by free-lantes„ It is in the one of your boOks recently-, and there
• control of a world-wide syndicate with was one bit I couldn't make out. You
branches In halt the capitals of the 'Said a blush 'crept sloWlym "What
else could I say?" asked the author.
Its agents are Wetly and various, "What would happen in these days if
from the discreet, enigmatically-sitil. a blush did anything but creep?
Ing Japittiese "student" to the florid Imagine P19 dust iewould raise if it
isd. with a selection of old frunitalre iran."—The Outlook.
,
., .,
, . .„ , -,.• . ., '.
'''i,,:oo.i.',4,,i44;04,w400444ofoo.,011,,,'Avvai,..,n,:iet!tiopofictHoy-owtre!
''''f.:..11.,iglijiiiliii46ig'''
Ho Thought It Was Out.
Plenty of Nerve
"J'ever see anything to beat that
fly dentiet? He's got a nerve, IlL
say!"
"Right—he's got several of mine."
• Insanity
London Evening Standard (Ind.
Cons.): (Insanity is slightly on the
increase in Great Britain.) We have
introduced into our ordinary life dur-
ing the last fifty years all manner of
strains to which our ancestorswore
not subjected in any previous age. It
is possible that.primitive man found
ete mammoth and the sable -toothed,
tiger trying to his nerves,. But these
dangers are not everyday occur-
rences. lVforeover, for thousands of
years, mankind ae, a whole hes 'bee%
free of any such menaces. Its ner-
ves have grown accustomed to a re-,
lative peacefulness. Now, suddenly,
within the space of it life time, ma-
chinery and its concomitants, 'llamas,'
ed haste and increased noise, have
invaded every hour of our clay.' The
precise effects of this we do not let'
know, but some of them are, at anY
rate, suggested by common sense and
,experience. We know that hurny 'has
a wearing effect on the nerVes.
know that sudden, or long -continued
and irritating ncise has also a wear- .
ing effect on the nerves,. Hurry and
noise are among the most prominent
feature,s, of the life we lead to -day,'
and what hurts the nerves reaches
'ultimately to the brain.
se
Playlet§ Safe. •
Jeweller—"If 1 were you, I would
not have 'George, to his dearest Alicei
engraved, It Alice changes het taind,
you can't use the ring again."
Young Man—"What would you sug-
gest?'
"1 would suggest the words 'George,
to hit first and only love,"—Montreal
Daily Star,
Rustlers always seem to be working
for some fat follow who sits all day
with his 'feet on the desk smoking
cigars,