Balkans Products, Ltd.

Few policemen are as genteel as tall, bland Thomas Wentworth Russell, whose family (the Dukes of Bedford) have been potent in British politics almost continuously since Henry VIII. Few policemen are as magnificent, for his white dress tunic with its glittering scimitar is splattered with stars and medals. Few policemen are busier, for Thomas Wentworth Russell is not only Chief of Cairo's police, but spends much of his time as Director of the Narcotics Intelligence Bureau of Egypt, a position equivalent to that of world's chief narcotic sleuth. Because of his intense campaign to shut off the sources of Egypt's enormous narcotic trade, secret agents all over the world send their reports to Chief Russell and act on his recommendations. Last week he issued his fourth annual report on the state of the dope industry.

Chief Russell was glad to report that when Turkey's Dictator Kemal Pasha announced last December that he was joining the world fight on illicit opium, Kemal meant what he said. Three huge Turkish opium factories have been closed. By the Ghazi's orders poppy cultivation has been "limited to the actual needs of medicine and science."

Not so praiseworthy is the government of France, which performed lip service to the League of Nations narcotics limitation conventions of 1925 and 1931 and passed laws prohibiting cultivation, manufacture or transportation of hashish (Indian hemp) in French Syria. But nothing was said about possession. Syrians can and frequently do turn their mud-walled houses into warehouses for smuggled dope.

Most deplorable to Chief Russell is the government of Little Tsar Boris of Bulgaria. Poppies and roses grow well in Bulgaria. Since the forcible closing of the Turkish factories the centre of the illegal drug traffic has moved from Istanbul to Sofia. Nine narcotic factories are now operating in Bulgaria. Largest and most important is Balkans Products Co., Ltd., which opened a new factory at Radomir in October. In two months Balkans Products produced a "snow" storm of 1,500 kilograms--one and one-half tons--of heroin, all of which, according to Chief Russell, was smuggled into France and Germany in double-bottomed trunks, en route for the U. S., Egypt and the Far East. One kilo of heroin equals 250,000 medical doses. At this rate Balkans Products is producing 187,500,000 medical doses monthly, or a double dose for 3,000,000 dope fiends daily.

Director Russell pointed with pride last week to the work of four associates. Agents Perrins in London, Anslinger in Washington, Sirks in Rotterdam, Thomas in Berlin. Smooth teamwork among these four gentlemen resulted in the arrest last March of an affable Greek known as Elie Eliopoulos in Mannheim, Germany. M. Eliopoulos was returned to Athens. After five months in a Greek jail, M. Eliopoulos sent word that he would like to talk with Thomas Wentworth Russell, who promptly sent a special officer from Egypt and suggested that a U. S. agent proceed from Paris. Elie Eliopoulos' confession uncovered one of the greatest international drug rings discovered in years.

Thomas Wentworth Russell may be an ardent and efficient dope sleuth. He is also a tactful Briton. Nowhere in his report did he mention India or Britain's

Eastern possessions where opium is quite legally grown, manufactured and smoked under state monopolies. British India alone took a net profit in 1931 of $2,800,000 from the sale of opium from its two Government factories. The Government of British India hopes to end its distasteful but profitable export business in opium by 1935.

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