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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0307.PDF
0^ AERIAL SMUGGLING BY CAPTAIN P. G. MARR, R.A.F. SMUGGLING may be taken to denote a breach of the Revenue laws either by the importation or the exportation of prohibited goods or by the evasion of Customs duties on goods liable to duty. It is to these evasions of Customs duties that the aerial smuggler's activities will be chiefly directed. In this article it is not proposed to deal at any length with the moral and legal aspects of smuggling by air. Those rulings which hitherto have applied to smuggling by sea and over frontiers would embrace the]!subject under con sideration. Rather is it the writer's object to examine it with regard to its feasibility and the steps that could be taken to detect and prevent it. As to the kinds of goods it would be possible to import by aerial smuggling, the chief essentials would be lightness, com pactness, and high value in relation to weight and bulk, provided the import duties levied upon them were high in comparison with their original cost. Later on there may be changes in the schedule of taxable goods suitable for smuggling by air, but the tendency would be to add to their number. It is well known that the War has been responsible for almost incredible progress in the knowledge and practice of aviation. It is true that these advances have been made almost entirely with the view to improving aeroplanes for war purposes ; in fact, the results for which designers^and manufacturers have aimed have been almost exclusively speed, climb, manoeuvre and reliability, all of which are essential in war machines. But it must not be supposed that the various machines we see in the air every day, which were intended to fulfil these requirements when designed, will be the types employed for utilitarian purposes in the future. During the \yar designers and manufacturers have been enabled to acquire limitless stores of knowledge of aero nautics in general, with Government footing the bill— knowledge which under ordinary peace-time conditions would have taken years and years of research and costly experiment to obtain. It may not be very long before the experience so gained will be applied to the production of commercial machines of various types and sizes, according to the work they will be required to do. Aerial achievement in the matter of cross-country flying is becoming a matter of common knowledge, and merchants will not be slow to avail themselves of aerial transport facilities for certain classes of goods, on the numerous occasions where speed is all- important. Cost of delivery will necessarily be of secondary consideration in such cases, for it must not be overlooked that aerial transport and aerial travel will be comparatively expen sive at first, unless' a far-seeing Government grants generous subsidies. As regards passenger-carrying, it should not be difficult to educate people to appreciate the advantages of this new and speedy means of travel. To become popular, however, aerial travel must also make an appeal to the pocket, and, above all, it must be reasonably safe. Other wise its many advantages will be discounted, and voyages by air will be undertaken only by the well-to-do and the adventurous. In due course, besides Service war machines, which con stitute the bulk of aeroplanes now in existence, we may expect to see the following classes of aircraft in ever-increasing daily use :— (i) Privately-owned machines for purposes similar to those of the motor car, namely, for sport or pleasure, to carry one or more persons. (2) Machines piloted by special messengers or carrying special messengers. 3) Machines for passengers and merchandise. (4) Machines for passenger-carrying only. (5) Machines for merchandise only. (6) Special mail machines. Many of those of the classes 3, 4 and 5 would also carry mails. In addition to the above, there would be various kinds of " dirigibles," i.e., lighter-than-air machines of the Zeppelin and Schutte-Lanz order, as well as smaller craft such as our own " Blimp," so popular at seaside resorts. To these airships practically everything within the scope of this article would equally apply ; but as the progress made m the use, construction and general knowledge of aeroplanes has far outstripped that of dirigibles, the tendency will doubt less be to popularise the aeroplane tj'pe. These notes should therefore be taken to apply more particularly to heavier-than- air machines. It may not be out of place to state here, before considering smuggling methods and preventive measures, that the particular legislation designed with the view to preventing smuggling is contained in th« Customs Consolidation Act of 1876 (39 and 40 Vict. c. 36, s.s. 169-217) the main provisions of which are briefly as follows :—Vessels engaged in smuggling are liable to forfeiture. Officers of Customs have a right of search of vessels and persons. Fradulent evasion or attempted evasion of Customs duties renders the offender subject to forfeit treble the value of the goods or £100 at the election of the Commissioners of Customs. Heavy penalties are incurred by resistance to officers of Customs, rescue of persons or goods, assembly to run goods, signalling smuggling vessels, shooting at vessels or boats or officers of the naval or revenue service, etc. There can be no doubt that the pro visions of the Act here quoted would apply to aerial smug gling until special legislation were provided. A writer of 1887 on the legal aspects of smuggling stated that contracts to defraud the revenue of a foreign state were not, according to English decisions, illegal. He went on to say that there was a German decision, " more consonant with international morality," to the opposite effect. We were obliged to blush in 1887—but so many things have happened since ! The measures to be taken for the prevention and detection of aerial smuggling will vary with the class of smuggler to be prevented or detected. It is quite possible that the use of the first class of machine mentioned above will produce the private-owner-pilot smuggler or the pilot-smuggler accomplice of the private owner. His aeroplane would prob ably be a land machine, for by coming down in a seaplane anywhere on the coast he would be at once detected by our well-organised and vigilant coastguards. His greatest chances of success will be at the time when the preventive and detective measures are in their experimental stages. Later on these will become highly organised, but their value can only be judged by the measure of success they achieve in making smuggling too risky an occupation in relation to its rewards. The comparatively high cost of air craft and the expense of maintenance will have a consider able influence in deciding how soon this desirable state of things will come about. It is hardly likely in these matter-of-fact days that this type of aerial smuggler will share with his forerunners the glamour with which the popular imagination of the eighteenth century surrounded the life of adventurers of this kind. In those days smuggling was so generally practised in Great Britain as to become a kind of national failing, and the smuggler was often regarded as a popular hero, like the contrabandista of modern Spain. He had a staunch apologist in Adam Smith, the great economist, who wrote of the smuggler as " a person who, though no doubt highly blamable for violating the laws of his country, is frequently incapable of violating those of natural justice, and would have been in every respect an excellent citizen had not the laws of his country made that a crime which nature never meant to be so." Assuming that the land type of aeroplane would be used, the question of " inland coastguards " naturally presents itself. Before discussing them, however, we must e iminate so paradoxical a name, coin a new word, and call them " airguards." Their sphere of usefulness would be far greater than the tracking of the possible private-owner-pilot-smuggler. When one considers the enormous number of fields throughout the British Isles in which an aeroplane can make a landing, the problem of providing sufficient airguards in every part of the kingdom assumes serious proportions. It is all the more important when it is realised that their duties must include such work as getting help in case of " crashes " ; examining, for contraband, machines forced to descend through engine failure and other mechanical causes ; watching for foreign or suspicious-looking machines and inspecting them should they land outside an aerodrome ; communicating with police stations, fire brigade stations, hospitals, etc. All these duties, as any flying man knows, would necessitate the covering of innumerable miles at high speed as well as much arduous foot-slogging over fields, with their hedges, ditches, and other obstacles. The nature of the airguards' work would call for the establishment throughout the country of a series of airguard stations each garrisoned by two or more airguards. It need hardly be said that each station would be provided with a telephone. Every airguard would be an expert motorcyclist, each having a machine for his sole use ; without it he would be greatly handicapptd, so it must be kept in perfect tune, ready for instant use. He would carry, on his person or cycle, a telescope or binoculars, a first-aid set, a few tools such as wire-cutters, hacksaw, etc. (for rescue work in the event of crashes), and an automatic pistol. In addition to ths airguards, whose number could be deter. 307
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