811.114 St. Pierre-Miquelon/330
The Department of State to the French Embassy
Memorandum
Rumors have reached this Government during the past several weeks that there have been surreptitious shipments of alcohol from [Page 429] the warehouse at St. Pierre-et-Miquelon, in violation of the decree of April 9, 1935,39 effective May 15, 1935, providing, inter alia, that a bond for the production of a landing certificate must be given on all shipments of alcohol from St. Pierre-et-Miquelon, and that no alcohol shall be exported in vessels of less than 200 tons.
Within the past ten days definite confirmation of these rumors has been received. There is enclosed a copy of an affidavit40 obtained from a former member of the crew of the liquor vessel Anagagana, stating that this vessel obtained a cargo of alcohol at St. Pierre-et-Miquelon on or about December 24, 1935, between the hours of midnight and daylight. There is also attached a paraphrased copy of a telegram40 received from the American Vice Consul at St. Pierre-et-Miquelon reporting that he personally witnessed what appeared to be the loading of a motor vessel with several hundred cases of alcohol at the breakwater at St. Pierre-et-Miquelon between the hours of two and five o’clock on the morning of February 17, 1936. Furthermore, persons at St. John’s, Newfoundland, having knowledge of the alcohol smuggling traffic, have informed the American Consul General at that place that about half of the approximately 14,000 cases of alcohol which were landed at St. Pierre-Miquelon by the Norwegian steamship Bodo on December 19, 1935, has been surreptitiously removed.
It is clearly apparent from the foregoing that the decree of April 9, 1935, has been violated by those engaged in the alcohol-smuggling traffic and it is believed that the French Government will wish to take effective measures to prevent a further disregard of its laws.
- See telegram No. 344, April 17, 1935, from the Ambassador in France, Foreign Relations, 1935, vol. i, p. 414.↩
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