The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-22
WET FORCES ARE
 EXAGGERATING
 LIQUOR VOLUME
(Continued from Pnre nnel


 1 per cent by volume or less.
 Unfortunately, 1t is not alone with genuine liquors we have to deal, even in the smuggling trade. "Doctored booze" also comes in from the Ba- hamas. There are in our files con fidential reports to prove this. And there are also the records of the po- lice in many costal cities in account ing for mysterious death. Q Just before prohibition became ef- fective, there was a rush of export liquor to Canada, the Bahamas and papers during those days coutl for get the printed stories of liuuor many other points outside American Jurisdiction. No one who read the dumped out on the shore for lack of storage facilities. It was destined by it's rightful owners to be held until an early day-to which they looked hopefully-when the Volstead act should be declared unconstitutional Then it was to be rushed back for sale al famine prices. For it's ulti- mate smuggling should the courts prove unkindly to wet" hopes there were only the vaguest ideas. The 'wets" could not believe that pro- hibition had come to stay.
 Much of this Supply has trickled back. Most of 1t has disappeared; i; and such little American made whisky as does come in more often than not is "doctored" beyond recog- milton and has been diluted to double or treble its former volume. The bootleg market for 1t has waned for months. The man who craves liquor so badly as tC pay sS or $1o or SIP bottle for 1t wants a kick" in his costly drink. He has little pa tience with watered stuff. And dread of poisoned adulterations makes him gun-shy of the old, well known American brands.
 This dread of deleterious liouor and the tightening up of restrictions around our own remaining stores of pre- prohibition liquors account very largely for the enormous increase in importations from England to such places as the Bahamas. There have been instances recently where as many as 10000 cases a week have been contracted for by merchants in the island ports. The only possible outlet fer. that whisky flood .. is the smuggling trade.
 Among British officials there Is no effort to deny this. Witness a dis patch recently widely circulated in American papers, quoting Sir Harry Edward Spiller Bordeaux, governor and command er-in- chief of the Ba- hama Islands, as having said in Mon- treal that the healthy condition of the island't finances was largely due to it's liquor traffic. That condition was most strongly reflected in the recent 250,0o0 pounds expenditure for harbor improvements at Nassau, the governor was quoted as saying.I
 Or, again, the following Assocl- ated Press cablegram from London:
 Practically the whole of the large increase in imports of wine and spir- its into the Bahamas last year was due to prohibition in America, MT. Ormesby- Gore, under secretary of the colonial office. told a questioner in the House of Commons.
 Commander Kenworthy, independ : laugh with the suggestion that for the sake of friendship with America these colonies be rationed. MT. Ormesby- Gore said he certainly would not interfere with British trade. If we prohibited it they would go to Haiti or some other con venient island belonging to another nation,' he added.
 'The under secretary stated thae imports of wine into the Bahamas in 1929 totaled f27,260 in value and spirits just over f1,000,000, whereas in 1918 they were fS,675 and f6.S70 respectively"
 Bahamas Large Profits.
 The reaction of officials of the Bahama government is a natural one. Liquor importations there are legal, and there is duty collected of about S7 a case.
 It is no wonder that the huge in- crease in liquor tmportations which began in 1921 is credited with having paid off long ago the outstanding indebtedness of the islands. The law-defying American patrons of rum smugglers have made the colony a present of that sum, and piled up fortunes besides for men in the islands who have no scruples against this phase of the traffic.
 There is a point overlooked in tho statement attributed to Governor Bordeaux That is the outstanding fact in all the records of American prohibition enforcement that rum smuggling. narcotic smuggling. eva sion of immi grafton laws and dia- mond smuggling run hand in hand.
 A recent illustration of this kim ship in smuggling is disclosed in the case of the sloop Mary Beatrice. She rolled into Rum Row" one June day some three or four weeks out of Havana, with a cargo of human aboard-15 Chinese who had paid the skipper to land them on our forbidden shore. And there she lay and rolled while the skipper fled and crew and human cargo fought. Twin sister she was to the rum run ner.
 The rum fleet" itself is a curious flotilla. A former Spanish cruiser. once pride of the fleets of the naughty Dons, has been spotted them. The one time palatial yacht of a noted American industrial captain has flashed her dainty heels back and forth in the new brother" hood of the coast, keeping company beaten old fishing schooners from the Grand Banks. Smaller craft, made glorious in the war through the daring of Yankee tars who manned thcm have joined this pack of sea vermin preying on the self respect and decency of a people. Estimate Of Liquor Tonnage.
 It is estimated from reports at hand that 53 vessels with an aggre- gate of more than 5000 tons register operated out of the Bahamas alone in 1922. What may have been the aggregate of genuine liquor dumped on our slOlcS ilO Hiil Sdi say u could not have exceeded, however. the aggregate of liquors imported oy tke islands during that year or al- ready in storage there.
 We have accurate records of these new freebooters. We know the his tory of the ships, of their captains, and in many cases of the men who engineer the operations and frequent ly travel as supercargoes on snug gling voyages. Our files form veri table Who's Who in Rum Row" Many of these master smugglers are of American birth The shippers of these lawless fleets are drawn chief ly from the scum of American water fronts.
 But their crews are largely re- cruited among the sponging flotillas of the Bahamas, and in their veins.