Up to date from last August to July 26 this year, the report states, total of 117016 bags of rayon, 7,978 bays of cigarette paper, 51,505 Packages of piece goods. 914,126 bags of sugar and 134,807 "packages of sundries had been "illegally imported" into Tientsin.
Just for the three items of rayon, cigarette paper and sugar alone, a cording to the report, the Custom had sustained a loss in duties to amount of over 14,940,000 Gold Units.
Coming back to the question of checking the southward flow of contraband by train,, the report. slat that a marked decrease was note for the parled from July 13 to 20, on account of strong preventive measures adopted by Customs officers on the On July 21, the report relatesprallway police' and guards assisted Customs officers in ejecting a number of Koreans from the train at the Tientsin East Station, who were found to be carrying over 300 pack ages of illicit goods as personal luggage, Raids on various firms were also carried out by the Tientsin Customs fand seizures of contraband effected, the Customs report concludes, Tientsin Factory Crippled Tientsin, Aug. 6.
Affected by the smuggling rampant in North China, the Peiyang match factory, one of' the biggest Chinese enterprises in Tientsin, is curtailing its operations and has dismissed more than 200 workers, if business conditions do not twice a turn for the better, it is feared the factory will have to close shortly.
With the market flooded with smuggled matches, the factory has found a poor outlet for the large Jquantity of matches now stocked in His storerooms.—Central News.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.