This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.
"Experienced customs officials have given up trying to estimate the loss to state revenue caused by air smuggling during the past year," reports John Bull this week. The lowest estimate is believed to be at least £1 million, however. Smuggling is alleged to have become "the smart thing to do" in the RAF, with all ranks from senior officers downwards complicit in the fraud. Aircraft land in Britain from overseas on service airfields with no customs officers on duty, and the contraband is quickly passed along to West End racketeers who have established contacts with RAF aircrew. John Bull notes that the few prosecutions that have taken place have almost exclusively been of junior officers, though men of 'air rank' - Air Commodore and above - are believed to be just as guilty. "Many of the farewell demob parties given by senior officers have been fantastically lavish in liquor brought in by air - with no duty paid. The customs drive against this ramp should be aimed higher."
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