Ever singe the enforcement of the luxury tax in Japan, jewellery articles of the value of several hun-red thousand yen have been smug-fled into. the country from abroad, find for Yhis reason the Japanese Authorities in Manchuria have been Alpine. their utmost to curb the activities of smugglers, operating between Manchuria. and Korea. The ingenuity displayed by these contrabandiats is remarkable at times fand it is computed that, for every dollar's worth of jewellery con fi seated, ten times as much goes foraas the frontier unnoticed, The articles ure mostly from France, Ttaly, and Switzerland and forwarded vid Siberia to smugglers in Man-¢huria, who include Chinese, Rus sians, Koreans, and Japanese, Rings and diamonds, ax well as other precious stones, are hidden in neckties, shocheels oF stick-handies find, very. often, in an effort to put fon an ait of honesty, smugglers {vin shows the Customs officials about 20 per cent, of the total articles they are carrying. Tecently, the authorities became suspicious of jose lugizage included a Goron sticks of various kinds. Put ting two and two together, they wished avatick for hick, and dinronds, rubies, and so forth came Pay precious stones in their hair uring, out of the handle. Women
sometimes, but this is a trick to Which the offeials now are _accustomed, The Korean and Chinese smugyiers are comparatively hard {fo catch, for the reason that some fof them are ao ditily clad and car-Sy such litle luggage with them that invariably they are taken for the wsial type of labourers. How. ever, Russians and Japanese engaged fu this game are not so easy of detection, A Russian couple and a child. xeeently crossed the frontier on their way to Japan and, after examination by the Customs officials, were allowed to proceed. The child Inada idle dll, to which mo one Service man on the. train noticed a thought. ' However, a secre
that, very shortly after, the parents took' the doll away from the child land gave it another toy, and this caused him to investigate. The re-ult was that all were held at Seoul, for attempting to infringe Japanese Customs regulations. The doll, contained rings of all kinds, as well as rneektic pins and Siberian rubies.
Opium now is so easily procure able in Manchuria, and has become, comparatively speaking, a cheap luxury, so the Chinese are buying less "dope" from abroad. The profits in the "dope" business now are not so remunerative as they used to be, and, taking: it all in all, the Customs oMicials in Manchuria. are fully equipped to arrest the efforts of smugglers of "dope," guns, and ammunitions. It is the jewel smug-glor who is hard to catch and what. is confiscated Ly the Customs people represents but a fraction of what safely gets through to Japan.
of course, a ood paying proposition.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.