Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1957-03-14, Page 3Smugglers Curse Irish Terrorists Irish terrorists are being cursed heartily these days - for an unusual reason, They;ve wrecked the best racket in all Ireland - cattle rustling -- just when folk on both sides of the border were getting rich through two-way smuggling.. But now there are too many guards. For over thirty years the clash between smugglers and preventive men has been fought out non-stop along the 180 mile line that divides Eire and Northern Ireland. During the war and just afterwards Dub- lin, jammed with luxury goods, was regularly invaded by week- end visitors from Belfast and. Britain, seeking cigarettes, chocolates, nylons, clothes, cam- eras, watches and jewellery. Nowadays the amateur smug- gler confines himself to this small stuff, but, the profession- al goes in for large-scale cat- tle rustling and. the import of fertilizers into Eire. It is highly prosperous, thanks to the in- genious two-way system that could only happen in Ireland! The Eire farmer hands his cattle over to a professional smuggler. Along the whole fron- tier line that crosses mountain and bog and much desolate country, there are only eigh- teen routes by which people, are permitted to pass from one territory to another, via customs control points. But there are scores of tiny roads crossing and recrossing the border. The penalties for being caught on these roads are extremely heavy, but the smugglers gen- erally know how to evade the customs. Some fifty cattle, say, are. taken across and sold at auc- tion in the north. Each animal collects a government bonus of up to $30, depending on its quality and the price it reaches. Once sold, the animals are EYE CUTE - Gagging it up with a pair of trick spectacles, Ralph -Santos, TV cameraman, takes a turn in front of the Tens. The specs are weird enough at first sight (top) but when Ralph turns on his "zoomnar" Tens (bottom), he really makes folks . jump. promptly turned round and smuggled south again, to be re- sold in Dublin! By this system, an animal can realize $300 for an expenditure of about $90. With a herd of fifty the profit is hefty. Another two-way racket con- sissts of filling a large lorry with any goods more expensive in the north at that time, run- ning it over the border and sell- ing the contents. The lorry makes its return . trip loaded with fertilizer, which is enor- mously more expensive in the south. A lorry full of cigarettes. can gonorth and be back with fertilizer in two or three hours, maybe making several trips ` on a dark night. Smugglers are glad when the hordes of tourists start flocking in and out, tying up the customs in routine checks on major traffic routes. These checks are always a battle of wits. It was rather a pity one in- genious fellow was caught. He used to smuggle a quart of whisky at a time in the inner tube of his bicycle - but had a puncture outside a customs station! Only the very stupid woman now smuggles butter into the north concealed in her clothes. At Dundalk railway station she is liable to be taken out of the train and into a small room where generally .there is a blaz- ing fire, whatever the weather. Stood casually in front of this, she can be kept in conversation until the butter threatens to be- tray its presence, when she will invariably give in! The customs men can be very tough. They've even taken gen- uine engagement rings from girls, as well as watches and bracelets. And if the amateur smuggler does get past the customs man, let him beware of leaning back and relaxing as the train moves off again for Belfast. For that good-looking girl sitting oppo- site is liable to invite him sweetly to ancompany her to the guard's van, where he finds that she, too, is a customs offi- cer, left to trap him. Biters Get Bit One type of; criminal who does not often get into the news is the gentleman who specializes in robbing ;the robbers. There was once a footman who had his eye on some jewels belonging •to his master. One night, as a first attempt in crime he decamped with $5.0,000 worth Of gems bulging his pockets. But a 'professional cracksman had also had his eye on •these spark- lers for a long time, but couldn't. get ,at them He waylaid the ab- sconding footman, ;stunned bsconding-footman,;stunned' him, and removedthe loot with the comment: "Let this show you that honesty is the best. policy!" In New Zealand this year a man stole $10,000 from the po- lice payroll. The money was found in a schoolboy's satchel. The boy said he saw a man hiding the money in a hole in a wall and when the man had gonehe helped himself. In Paris, at one time, there were ,three gangs specializing in waylaying crooks homeward bound with the .proceeds of a night's "work." When arrested the gangsters could not under- stand that they were doing any- thing -"wrong in stealing from thieves. Some months ago a man was. sentenced to death for stabbing a shopkeeper in the East End of London and stealing clothes. Before he was .arrested he met another man and this man stole from him the clothes for which the murder had been committed. "How is your son getting on with his medical studies?" in- quired Mrs. Green of her friend. "Very well, thank you," re- plied the proud mother. "He can already cure small children." CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1. Little tots 5.Owned 1 8. Engrossed 12. Seed covering 13. Jap.'rice paste (14. Charles Lamb 15. Tableland 116. Preacher 20. P1 y9 121. Chain of rook. ;22. 1002 24. Dessert 126. Point 28, Cubic meter 32. Maple genus 34. Steal 36. Passage out 87. Measured 82. Male oat 41. Small fish 42. Decline 44. Shrill barks 46. Sedately 50. Restrain 53. Small parrot 55. Italian river 66. Jap. Outcasts 57. Spring month 68. To a point 59. Uinside nit of fares 80. Before 61. Stalk ()OWN 1. Head coverings 2.Expanse 3. Prudently silent i. Quench 11, small pie 38. Dagger 17. Egypt. 40. Crazy goddess 43, Smyrna ri 19.2EveCollrgreen 45. Pers. fairies 22.I7vergreen 24. 016 card game 46. Hurried 25. Frozen water 47. Tasting llks 27. Cooking 5. Meat vessel 6. Among • 29.Having being 7. Cotton fabric 80. Free 8. Temporary 31. French tor "Play summer 9. ranging v a 1 c e 38. Set free '0 ilharf 35. Lad oats 48. Chaff of wheat 49. Period of time 51 Grafted (Heraldry ) 62. Space 54, Ship's rope I 2....3 4 ;:5 6 7 ;<:8 9 10 n 12 <; 13 •:: 14 18 - 19 a 20 - er M 21 22 ,fir 3., 23 . ti q n '{�.., ... •„ �' 24 25 �•. 26 27 lit28 29 30 31 32 33 :o.•• 34 • 35 isr 36 37 38 •.t fi• o 39 40 41 T 4142 "43 x•4;44 lii 46 �.`' 44, 47 48 ... - -. -. 49 WI •..s •, J 51 52 55 54 ... ":::iii 55 56 . 57 58 59 ji: 60 .61 •.4�v' Answer elsewhere on ibis page. PLOWING .IN THE PARKIN LOT -This striking contrast between the ultramodern apartment house'and the age-old plowman behind his horses presets itself in West Berlin, Germany. The "city farmer" is actually a,gardener who took advantage of the warm weather to JOT up the soil for spring planting in thea apartment house '' pea yard., .,.: HUMANE TRAPPING By Donald Baillie Vice -President Canadian Association for. Humane Trapping. Are you interested in trap- ping? Perhaps you don't do much of it - just the odd mouse or rat around your own house -or barn. The trap you use probably has a striking bar attached• to a strong spring. When the spring is released the bar strikescthe' animal, crushing it to death pret- ty quickly. A trap like this, which kills almost instantly, is a fairly humane way of destiny- ing mice and rats. The kind of trap I want to dis- cuss with you today is a different story altogether. It has a very powerful spring, but instead of. a crushing bar it has steel jaws. These jaws will try to clamp to- gether when the spring is .re- leased. If something tries to stop them from clamping right together, they bite into that something. • By no stretch of imaginap can these traps be called,h e When the jaws sprinll ah a on leg orpaw01a ;Bain Ui1eti%els• +¢ . fling of his sufferings best they may be ended,,, soon by drowning, if he , isi' a water animal, and if the trapper has : taken the trouble to ' arrange a drowning set, which will hold him under the water when he dives for his natural cover. Even then, drowning is a fairly slow business for a beaver, or otter, or mink, or muskrat, 'equipped to stay under water for a long time. If there is no way for him to drown, he .must either gnaw off his paw, or twist if off, or en- dure the trap asbest he can un- til death releases him. He may. struggle till he is dead - he may freeze till he is dead - another animal may kill him - or at last the trapper may, kill him. A fur trapper . in Canada will do well to get around his . trap lines once in a week. He may have five or six hundred to visit. In bad weather a trap may be left unvisited for nearly a, month. I mentioned that the animal may gnaw and twist ab!;" his leg until finally the flesh and sinew and bones are all sev=- ered apart and he is free - free, to hobble away with a raw stump, or the gangrenous re- mains of a .frozen paw. Some trappers have estimated that they lose as many as 20% of. their catch by these "wring -offs", that is, 20% of several million wild animals may be amputated this way each winter in Can- ada. Each year we Canadians kill about nine million animals for their fur, and -the great majority of these are not raised on fur farms. They are trapped. Some, are caught in wire snares around their necks, but most in leghold traps. This means that one or more steel traps snap shut every minute of our long winter. While you are reading this, 'two hundred or more of our Can- adian animals are being caught in the leghold trap, and several thousand already caught are dying. Apart from the numbers we kill, let's think about the un- necessary pain we inflict in catching them. It seems to me that higher mammals must feel something pretty close to what we humans feel. Most of the biologists I've met agree with me on this. You all know that your dog or cat certainly doesn't like to have his paws trod on. If you want a rough idea of the leghold trap, just imagine that the door of your car has been slammed across the . fingers of. your bare hand. Imagine that the door is jammed shut - and im- agine that you are then left with your hand so caught .until' you either starve to death, or freeze to death - or tear your hand apart, You are probably asking your- selves right now - "If this is such a painful business, why doesn't somebody do something about it?" Well, some countries have done something about it, Norway, for example. The leg- hold trap was outlawed in Nor- way over 50 years ago, yet Nor- wegians manage to trap about half a million animals in hu- mane traps each year. I under- stand that Sweden, Finland, and Germany, have outlawed it too. In 1949 the British Government appointed a committee of inquiry to investigate charges of cruelty to wild animals in Britain. The tone of their report, issued in 1951, was far from fanatical. They stated quite strongly, "Nobody can doubt that this is a diabolical instrument, which causes an in- calculable amount of suffering." Incalculable is the right word, ar 30 ;million rabbits. alone are t 4?ae year. 'addee' -= �'We recoinmend • that the sale for use in this .; country of the gin trap, and the use of the gin trap, should be banned by law within a „short period of time." By the Pests Act'1954 the use of the gin trap • will become illegal in Britain after July 31, 1958. Thirty years ago the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Britain offered ,a prize. for an effective humane trap. In 1947 a rabbit trapper named Sawyer finally won the award. His trap has two arms which snap up, and to- gether, and break the rabbit's neck instantly. Even if we ignore the ques- tion of being humane, we can see that such a trap has•two great advantages over the leg - hold type. First; there is no •loss of animals by the wring -off; second- ly, the animal makes no noise that ' will attract other animals to attack it, and spoil the fur or carcass before the trapper arrives. About 30 years ago a national organization was formed in Can- ada with the object of abolish- ing the cruelty of the steel trap. It is called the Canadian Asso- ciation for Humane Trapping. Its headquarters are in Tor- onto, but there are members from coast to coast. This Associ-, 'ation is endorsed by Humane So- N.cieties across Canada, since it tries to do for our fur bearers what the. Humane Societies de for domestic animals. Until recent years we devoted most of our association's energy • and income to telling people about existing conditions in Can- • adian trapping. You may have seen our advertisements in maga- zines and newspapers. We have distributed thousands of pam- phlets, and we have operated demonstration booths at the Can- adian National Exhibition. We have also kept in touch with the latest practices in fur farms, and in the development of sub- stitutes for natural flus, such as the nylon furs recently develop- ed. We do these things because we want to conserve some of our wild life resources in a natural balance for the people who some after its, and because we just don't like to see unnecessary suffering going on right here in Canada. In 1951 we interested the On- tario Department of Lands and Forests in importing from Eng - land 200 Sawyer 'traps -- the trap which hills instantly and which I mentioned earlier -- and the Department distributed these to Ontario trappers for testing. Their reports were so favourable that we imported another 1,000 which we sold at cost to trap- pers across Canada. Then in the Spring of 1.952 we sent out a questionnaire to each purchaser asking his opinion as to the ef- fectiveness of the Sawyer trap in Canadian conditions and ask- ing hixn to suggest improvements, -There was a good response to this questionnaire, with many valuable suggestions, Since then we Have continued to sell these traps at cost to the trappers. In 1954 we imported. another type of instant -killing trap, the Bigelow, from . U.S.A. and have sold many hundreds of; them also, In 1956 we sponsored the manufacture of a trap invent- ed' in Canada called the Wil-Kil. This trap is made in two sizes, the smaller one is used for mink, muskrat and animals of similar size while the larger one is for beaver and otter. As far as we know, this is the only instant - killer that will hold these large animals. We are now selling all three of these traps and each Spring the purchasers are issued with a questionnaire so that we can find out the reactions of the men who use them to the different type of traps. In British Columbia the Asso- ciation for the Protection of Fur - Bearing Animals is testing an- other type, the Conibear, also in- vented by a Canadian. World's Biggest! Plans are being discussed in New York, .for the publication in 1959 of the "second issue of the world'slargest newspaper which appears only once every century. This monster publica- tion was first published in United States in 1859 and meas- ured 7 ft. long and 4 ft. 6 in. wide. The first issue of The Illumin- ated Quadruple Constellation, as it was called, consisted of eight pages each containing thir- teen closely -printed columns. It took forty people eight weeks, working day and night to' bring out this gigantic news- paper. The contents included news about stars;• and the uni- verse generally.. Preserved in London, too, is another oddity in newspapers, a small yellowing sheet head "The Daily . Citizen, Vicksburg, Mississippi, July 2nd 1863." It was printed during the Ameri- can Civil War on wallpaper. THAT NEEDLED HIM The boss was' accustomed to being out of the office a good deal on business and was ra- ther worried about the behav- ior of his new typist while he was away. Sending for her one morn- ing he asked: "I hope you don't just- sit and twiddle your thumbs while I'm not in the office." "Oh no, sir," the girl replied, "I get on with my knitting. Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking ©©B©©�© ©©®CI 080U Eli=.. MB© IDMEEI ©© ©CE1OQ 1315E2g3 ERIN ME MOB COMM BB®© LEE ' 'F70BEi MEMO 151013 ©BC1 11111112LallE1151E1 IBEICInmem 11019131111111M121 COMM OrlfillE1 ©©O flBElli Br7L'9E1 0©©.: MEM IINDAY SCiOOt LESSON ey Rev R. Barclay Warren B.A., [i.D. The Authority of Jesus Matthew 21; 23-32 Memory Selection; The people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one hale - lug authority, Matthew 'i; 28-29. Jesus" was the great teacher. Ike skillfully asked questions Which focused attention on the important point. In this lesson he asked a question in answer to a question. The chief priests and elders angered at his cleansing of the temple the previous day, demanded to know the basis of his authority. He in turn asked if John's baptism was of heaven or of men. They wouldn't commit themselves so Jesus did not an- swer their question. But his question exposed their unbelief in John which premised their unbelief in Jesus. Those who were disciples of John, the Fore- runner, readily became disciples of Jesus. • Then Jesus went on to tell a story which added to the con- demnation of the questioners. They were like the son who said he would work for his father but failed to go. They gave hp ser- vice to God but failed to do righteously in their every day living. Their rejections of John who came in the way of right- eousness demonstrated their real attitude to God. On the other hand the publicans and harlots made no profession of being religious. But under the preaching of Jesus many of these wicked people re- pented and believed and began to love and serve God. The lesson is clear. Religion is a practical every day affair, We must all repent of our sins and believe on Jesus Christ if we are to enter the kingdom of God. Our do-it-yourself way of being respectable won't do. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We all need to repent and turn from our sins. Then we can believe on Jesus Christ for His deliverance from our sins. Jesus Christ's authority is based in the fact that He is the Son of God. CALM - The graceful prow of the S.S. United States is mirror- ed in the still surface of New York's North River. Ship and reflection join together to form an illusion of startling stream- lining. The luxury liner, third largest in the world, docked re- cently unaided by strikebound tugboats in an operation re- garded by experts as an amaz- ing feat of navigation. NOT -SO -MYSTERIOUS EAST -- The smiles of these chi dren's faces would be understood in any language. The youngsters, ling lk ch tbeenn r"aregkok, Thailand, disassembled" and shippedntorthe nFar iEa terin coun- try where the solids and fats are recombined with water to make whets milk.