The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1928-04-01
LIQUOR SMUGGLING IN ENGLAND
London Graphic Tells of Extensive
Smuggling of Liquor Which Is
Sold to Licensed Saloons

FROM Tune TO time AMERICAN ISSUE
has called attention to items appear
ing in London newspapers describing
bootlegging ii England, Scotland and
Ireland. The bOotlegging problem has
become acute in England despite the
fact that the country aboundS in pub
lie houses, or saloons Here is indeed
conclusive evidence that licensing the
traffic does not do away with the lille
gal traffic. We now call attention TO
an article appearing in the London
Graphic, by Wentworth Day, describ-
ing extensive smuggling operations
carried on on the Essex and Suffolk
coast and around about Warden
Point IN the Isle of Sheppey.
CONTRABAND BOOZE AND SILK
Principal commodities smuggled
into England are silks and liquor. This
liquor is disposed of chiefly in London,
and is even purchased by licensees of
public houses who retail it at tremen-
douS profit. Here is something for
those people to think about who are
continually saying that prohibition is
responsible for liquor struggled into
the United States. We quote Mr. Day
who says:
I have spent weeks investigat-
ing these facts, and have no prac-
teal doubt of their accuracy, nor
are they denied by the board of
customs and excise Drightlingsea,
West MerSea, Maldon, Burnham-
on-CrOuch, Tollesbury, Walton-on-
the Maze, FeliXstowe, and a score
of smaller places are all the
homes of countless small yachts,
some of them owned by young
men with few pounds as capital
and a car as land transport, find
it the easiest thing in the world to
run their cargoes during the
weekend, pack them aboard the
car in suitcaSes and cabin trunks,
sell them in London, and clear a
useful profit. Smuggling en- the
east and southeast coasts today is
child'S play. 1t is the easiest get
rich-quick game for adventurous
young men that England has to
offer. I say that deliberately
from a long and intimate knoWl-
edge of the coastlines, the meth
DDS, and in some instances, the
men who are doing it.
EASY MONEY
Mr.. Day then tells of one young
man with whom he talked who
bought cabin cruiser for GOO pounds.
This money was given him by his
mother, who suggested he might
make comfortable living by taking
people for sea trips in the summer.
The young man put it into service as
a smuggling vessel. BY the end of six
months he had cleared all his ex-
penses and made 500 pounds clear
profit. Mr.. Day continues:
Most of the cargoes were landed at
Rye, where he told me at least a doz-
en- families, most of them of the old
smuggling breed are now living in
comparative ease simply by taking a
channel run every now and then. He
and several others rented an old
warehouse in which they stored their
bales and cases, removing some by car
to London and selling them locally.
Brandy and silk were the principal
commodities, and most of the silk was
taken by small WeSt-end millinery and
underwear shops which made it up
and passed it on at the full market
price Equally, ne told me, cases and
cases of brandy went to proprietors
Of public houses who bought at Us. Cd
a bottle and resold it at IT'S Sd. A