Evening star., 1945-01-04
MPs and Rackefeers
Fight Pitched Battles
Over Army Goods
from Yesterdays Late Edition. J
BY NELSON M. SHEPARD.

ffToM YeSterddys Late Edition.
By NELSON M. SHEPARD.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Dillon, newly
named deputy provost marshal gen.
eral of the European theater, told a
press conference today that despite
improved black market conditions
In Italy and Francs, pitched bat
ties" between American military po-
lice and natives sracketeering in
Army supplies are. almost nightly
occurrences. -
In and around Naples %, Italian
racketeers were killed in six weeks
and nobody knows how many of
them were wounded in pitched
battles every night" he said.
Gen. Dillon, who came back to
this country to report on condi-
tions he described, is soon to return
to Paris to take up his new duties.
He admitted that many soldiers"
are involved in the pilfering of
gasoline, cigarettes and food from
Army stocks. He said he did not
know how many soldiers are in
volved in the raeketeering, but that
many already have been court
martialed.
Gen. Dillon declared that while
the. .pilfering is extensive on the
railroads and on trucks bearing
supplies, they were not quite SO
substantial as the publicity given
them seems to indicate,
Lack of System Blamed.
He attributed some responsibility
for the activities to the failure to
adopt system-successfu in North
Africa, italy and Southern France
whereby the director general of the
railroads assumed responsibility for
the security of supplies moving on
being put into effect in the Cher
bourg area, replacing the practice of
base section control.
One reason for believing that the
racketeering in Army goods is not
quite so extensive as the public
might think, he said, is based on
the excessively high prices in the
black market, indicating a great
scarcity of supplies. A can of corned
beef in Italy brings 600 francs or
$12 and a pound of coffee brings $40
and sometimes more.
The index prices in the French
black market are higher than in
Italy, Gen. Dillon said, explaining
that this indicates Army supplies
are scarcer.
Gen. Dillon said a $50-a- month
Army truck driver often yields to
temptation when he sees he can
make $1,000 or $4,000 in a single
days haul.
Before going to France Gen. Dill
lon was provost marshal of the
North African and Mediterranean
theater, which included operations
in Italy.
Racketeers on Big Scale.
He said many of the Italian rack
eteers think in terms of carloads or
truckloads instead of small lots.
1.-The, general practice for one of
these racketeers is to approach a
S5D-a-month truck driver. toss him
a few thousand dollars and say,
Here's a little spending money for
you,'" Gen. Dillon related. 81
If the Army truck driver was to-
make five trips a day to the supply.
dump, be would be offered $1,000 or
sometimes $4,000 to divert one.
truekioad to "a farmhouse used as.
a base. That's an awful tempta-
ton" Gen. Billion said.
One American soldier turned over
$4,000 to the authorities which had.
been offered him as bribe, he said,
and also turned over the racketeer.3
PARIS, Jan. 4 pa gang Of
four French civilians, equipped with
a motorcar and armed with ma
chine gun, yesterday robbed two
tobacco shops in a Paris suburb of
$4,000 francs (S700) in cash and
tobacco and cigarettes valued at 3d.
900 francs Isl ,60o)-at legal prices.
about 1,050,000 francs 1921 ,OoO) black
market. .-