4.2
smuggling operations with their regular customers.
In such cases it is suspected that the Customs officers,
or at any rate the Chinese Customs officers, are offered
material inducements not to interfere with their
operations.
7. A favourite method of smuggling at Amoy is by
the misdescription of goods. For instance, shippers
at Hong Kong send to Amoy piece goods, on which duties
are high, but the cases in which they are packed are
described as containing goods on which duties are low,
as, for example, enamel ware. The consignees at Amoy
have ready cases containing enamel ware, exactly
resembling, and bearing the same marks as, those contain-
ing piece goods. The latter are, on arrival at Amoy, put
over the ship's side into lighters for conveyance to the
Customs examination shed; on the way the substitution is
effected. The cases containing piece goods are hidden
and are later landed when a suitable occasion presents
itself. The substituted cases containing enamel ware
are produced for the Customs examination, and, of course,
pass again into the hands of the consignees. In such
cases, should the fraud be detected, the Customs claim
the right to hold the shipowners liable to a fine "for
wrong description of goods in manifest", a claim clearly
unjust and indefensible.
2. The shipping companies, and particularly Messrs.
Butterfield and Swire, already take all precautions they
can reasonably be expected to in order to prevent
smuggling. One of their officers is specially seconded
for..