The Traffic in Drugs The great drug trial at Basle,
a city frequently notorious in connexion With the illicit traffic, demonstrates the success of the international co-operation in drug traffic suppression initiated by the League of Nations. The first of the moves that led to the prosecution in this case was taken by Rus.iell Pasha, the well-known head of the Cairo City Police, the Italian police authorities took up the investigations, and the Swiss police finally brought the offenders to book. The sentences—nine months' imprisonment with a fine of 20,000 Swiss francs was the heaviest—are unfortunately quite incommensurate with the temptations that the profits to be made out of heroin smuggling present. Domestic legislation needs tightening lip in that respect. But the Basle trial, together with such seizures as the French authorities have lately been making at Marseilles, does at any rate indicate that trafficking is becoming a riskier business than it was. Smuggling must always by the nature of things be comparatively easy. The only hope is to make the game less and less worth the candle.
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