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The New York Times May 12, 1946
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JUNK BOATS BARRED FROM HARBOR HERE
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The old familiar junk boats barred from the waters of New York harbor in
1941 for security reasons, will sail no more. A decision handed down yesterday by License
Commissioner Benjamin Fielding denied without comment all pending applications for the
reissuance of licenses.
The action was taken on the basis of evidence submitted at a hearing last month. Virtually
every shipping interest in the harbor, including the United States Customs Office,
attended to oppose resumption of junk-boat operation.
Customs authorities linked at least part of the trade directly to smuggling, asserting
that more opium was brought into New York in the late Thirties than could possibly have
slipped by their inspectors at the docks. Steamship representatives reported wholesale
thefts from ships at anchor, including a large consignment of Swiss watches on one
occasion and 2,400 cases of scotch on another.
Losses on one ship alone that docked in the harbor after sailing from France were put at a
half-million dollars. While it was admitted that some of this looting might have been done
before the ship left Europe, it was said that a great deal must have been done in this
city's waters.
Both city and Port of New York Authority police admitted the difficulty of policing the
harbor against crime. Tow boat operators, in opposing the reissuance of licenses, said the
junk boats ignored ordinary rules of navigation as they plied their trade. Coast Guard and
Navy authorities said they had no objection to the boats as long as law and order were
maintained, but the War Shipping Administration said there was no need for them.
The twenty-eight applicants, most of them represented by Irving B. Bushlow, an attorney,
vigorously denied connection with the incidents outlined by the opposition. They asserted
that, if there was any wrongdoing in the harbor, it could be laid to other small boats.
Notice of the commissioner's decision reached them by mail yesterday. In the letter there
was a simple statement that applications for licenses had been denied, with no recital of
the reasons for the action.
At the time the licenses were suspended in October, 1941, there were forty-six junk boats
under license. The suspension was ordered by former Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia at the
request of the Navy, which said continued operations would provide "a potent source
of possible espionage and sabotage inimical to the best interests of our country."
The boats used to meet such craft as tramp ships and purchase items for which they were
named---junk.