Customs Report Shows Duty Paid on $24,500,000 Value Frost Oun Ow Comusromnet Amoy, Nov. 20.
According to a report issued by the [Customs the amount. of goods imported into Fukien for the twelve months, ending June 30, 1036, amounted In value to just over $24,. 500,000. "Sixteen and a half por cent. ff this came from Japan and 7! per Jeent, from Taiwan. Japan, even including "Taiwan, stands' oMclally extremely low In the list of coun tries exporting goods to the province. The report, however, is a record only of the goods that pass through the Customs and on which duty is paid. [No record possibly can be Of the vast quantities of merchandise that have been smuggled into the province during that period, and on Which, of course, no duty was paid. I a record could be made of the smuggled goods brought in, Japan would, "probably, rank among the highest, in a lst of nations, if not the highest' nation, supplying the Fukien market, This is obvious for on every side we see Japanese goods for sale. further indicates clearly the enormty of the smuggling business that must exist. The small official percentage of goods supplied from Tal-wan Is not so surprising. Taiwan is quite close to Fukien and 9 number of organizations exist whose sole business is to run goods to Amoy, or fo some ollier port along the wskong Goods Smuggled It is no secret that a merchant can get his goods brought from Hong kong and handed over to him by paying the organization a 10 per cent. ad. valorem "duty." "Another well-organized group works only with Japanese goods in conjunction with the fshing craft of Amoy. The goods are transferred fo them at sea, and these boats cun home during the night, discharge their freight, and return to their fishing ground in the carly dawn. As much as $40,000 worth of piece goods have eon brought ashore during a single night. It is not surprising. then that only: 10 per cent. of the total Imports form the oficial record of Japanese business done in the province. 'That amount represents the business of honest merchants, who are rapidly going into bankruptcy, struggling to compete with the dishonest tide, oF are composed of machinery, or goods, too heavy and big to be' smuggled in, A These smuggling operations are not always profitable, however, and one of the best organized smuggling groups went into liquidation last your on account of successive selzures, The smuggling syndicate that went into bamicuptey consisted al~ most wholly of over-seas Chinese Who thought that they could become millionaires quickly at the expense of their country. 'Three of these have returned to' Singapore, two to Manila and others to Java _and /Sumatra, practically penniless, They fare reflecting now, probably, on the old saying that the "way of the trans-
'This syndicate was ambitious to smuggle on a large scale, It used a fust steam launch, was' equipped with machine guns, and an up-to-date wireless installation that Kept the vessel in constant touch with the headquarters at Amoy. For three years it operated and close "upon $1,000,000 was netted during the first year, over $500,000 the second, but in the third year came bankruptey.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.