George Albert Smith

1890 - 1953  (63 years)

• Name	George Albert Smith
  Born	1890	Deddington, Oxfordshire, England
  Gender	Male
  Interests	8 Jan 1936	Tientsin, China
  	Smugglers' Daily Raids Evade Customs While Police Watch TRAINS OF CONTRABAND TIENTSIN, Thursday. Korean smugglers, taking advantage of their Japanese nationality and the extra-territorial privileges it gives them, are smuggling, huge quantities of contraband into Tientsin daily. Lorries back up to the kerb in front of the railway station at Tientsin when the afternoon train from Shanhaikwan the border city between China and Manchukuo, arrives. Coolies unload silk, sugar, and miscellaneous commodites from the train, and put them on the lorries while Customs officers stand helplessly watching. The stationmaster and the Chinese police are not allowed to interfere Japanese Consular police look on complacently. What happens when anyone does interfere is shown by the experience of Mr. G. A. Smith, an Englishman, who is a train inspector at Tientsin. He once attempted t0 stop some Koreans who had not even troubled to wrap up the roll of smuggled silk they were carrying. BRUTAL BEATING Mr Smith was brutally beaten by the Koreans with clubs and sticks and left seriously injured on the station platform. He says that a Japanese Consular officer came on the scene and told the Koreans to stop beating him, but that was the only action taken. He spent several weeks in hospital. These smuggled goods which are brought in huge quantities to Tientsin for distribution throughout China not only pay no tariffs, but also pay no freight charges on the trains Koreans go to and fro on the Shanhaikwan-Tientsin passenger trains. They take out quantities of silver dollars to Shanhaikwan, and these are smuggled through breaches of the Great Wall into Manchuko. The smugglers return by the next available train with silk, artificial silk, satin, woollen cloth, sugar, or any other com- modities on which the Chinese impose high tariffs. Sometimes they are goods which are forbidden to be imported into China, and very often opium is smuggled. Third-class coaches on the trains are jammed with the Koreans and their contraband. Travellers frequently find it impossible to move through the train because gangways, seats and luggage racks are piled high with smuggled goods. DAY'S HAUL On a single train which arrived in Tientsin one afternoon recently, Mr. G. A. Smith checked with the British United Press correspondent the number of bales and sacks earned by the Koreans. The number was 444 packages, most of them bales of silk and woollen cloth. Of this number, 287 had not been booked as freight or baggage and no freight charges had been paid. None of the packages had been passed by the Customs and no Customs duties had been paid. The stationmaster estimated that 10,000 packages of goods are passing through the Great Wall and into China by the Shanhaikwan train every month. How much more contraband is smuggled through other points along the Great Wall it is impossible to estimate. Once a Chinese official seized a few rolls of silk smuggled by a Korean. The Japanese military headquarters in Tientsin was about to make "a serious incident" of it when "pressure" brought an abject apology by the Chinese official. SILVER SMUGGLED Japanese Consular police have been stationed at the Tientsin East station for several months to stop silver being smuggled out of China by the Koreans. But recently Japanese police were looking while a score of Koreans waited for the train to Shanhaikwan. Many of them were visibly smuggling silver coins, which were carried in handkerchiefs through which the glint of silver could be seen. Whenever a Chinese coolie passes through the station gate with anything that looks like a suspicious bundle, the Customs officers pounce on him immediately unless he is accompanied by a Korean or a Japanese. Officially the Japanese attitude is that smuggling does not exist. Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876 - 1954) Wednesday 8 January 1936 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/94502482?searchTerm=Tient-sin%20smith&searchLimits=#pstart9400159
  Interests	19 Jun 1939	Tientsin, China
  	SHOT DEAD BY SENTRY TIENTSIN, Saturday. A Japanese sentry shot dead a Russian at point-blank range while examining his credentials. An English witness, whom the sentry threatened with a revolver, said the killing was inexplicable. George Smith was taken to hospital with head injuries, the result of blows from a Chinese constable's revolver butt. Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954) Monday 19 June 1939 http://www.queenslandfamilytrees.com/admin_editperson.php?personID=I7493&tree=1&cw=1 He was not allowed to call in I his own doctor to dress the H wounds and has been denied fl clean clothes and cigarettes. http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/79424770?searchTerm=Tient-sin%20smith&searchLimits=
  Interests	24 Jun 1939	Tientsin, China
  	The Japanese, are now insisting that the British authorities should under take to deport as an undesirable Mr. G. A. Smith (who was injured and imprisoned by Japanese police a week ago) if they agreed to release him. Meantime nobody except a doctor is allowed to see Mr. Smith. The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954) Saturday 24 June 1939 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/55751562?searchTerm=Tient-sin%20smith&searchLimits=
  Interests	24 Jun 1939	Tientsin, China
  	BRITON RELEASED. TIENTSIN, June 24. G. A. Smith, a wounded Britisher, has been released. Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954) Monday 26 June 1939
  Interests	25 Jun 1939	Tientsin, China
  	MR, G. A. SMITH RELEASED Tientsin, June 25. Mr. G. A. Smith has been released by the Japanese. Kalgoorlie Miner (WA : 1895 - 1950) Monday 26 June 1939
  Died	15 Jul 1953	Jervis Bay, Nsw
  	SMITH The Relatives and Friends of the late GEORGE ALBERT SMITH of Jervis Bay are invited to attend his Funeral to leave the Klnsela Chapels Taylor Square Darlinghurst This Day Thursday after service to commence at 9 15 am for the Presbyterian Cemetery Botany CHARLES KINSELA PTY LTD The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Thursday 16 July 1953
  Buried	Presbyterian Cemetery, Botany, New South Wales
  Person ID	I7493	Hickey, List, Bundesen, Thomsen, Jensen, Jessen
  Last Modified	6 Jul 2013

  
  

  Father	David Smith,   b. circa 1866, Luton, Bedfordshire, England ,   d. 22 Aug 1941, 11a Dunstable street, Luton, Bedfordshire  (Age ~ 75 years)
  Mother	Sophia Sykes,   b. 1866, Deddington, Oxfordshire, England ,   d. 16 Apr 1951, of 38 Cambridge street, Luton, Bedfordshire  (Age 85 years)
  Married	1886	Luton, Bedfordshire
  Family ID	F4260	Group Sheet

  
  

  Family	Flora Beryl Brightwell,   b. 9 Jun 1901, Queensland, Australia ,   d. 2 Sep 1993, Lancaster, Los Angeles County, California, USA.  (Age 92 years)  [1]
  Married	5 Aug 1922	British Consulate & All Saints' Church, Tientsin, China   [1]
  Divorced	1949	Sydney, Nsw   [1]
  Children	+ 1. Joan Marie Smith
  Last Modified	16 Jan 2011
  Family ID	F2501	Group Sheet

  
  

• Sources

  [S83] Information kindly supplied by Barbara Orsborn.