B.C.'s New Chief
Kindly But Firm

Mounted Police in

bootlegger.

The head man of Royal Canadian

lumbia was once a prominent
But he did it in the
line of duty.

British Co-

*

By G. E. MORTIMORE

*

SSISTANT Commissioner Clif-

ford Walter WHarvison, who

now administers B.C.’s 1,000-
man force from an office in the vine-
covered headquarters building on
Courtney Street, Victoria, remembers
with amusement how he served as a
bootlegger for the R.C.M.P.

He was a constable in Montreal at
the time. Prohibition was the law in
the United States. New York rack-
eteers were importing liquor from
Canada, sending back stolen silks to
be smuggled into Canada as a return
cargo.

Smuggled silk could be purchased
openly in Montreal more cheaply
than honest silk in New York. Const.
Harvison and another man

G. P. Tinker & Co. Ltd.

*
REAL ESTATE - RENTALS
GENERAL INSURANCE
*
PRINCE RUPERT B.C.

TWENTY-EIGHTH EDITION

Were -

PHOTO BY BUD KINSMAN

Assistant Commissioner C. W. Harvison.

assigned to clean up the racket. They
became bootleggers in New York
state, circulating through such towns
as Plattsburg and Syracuse.

“In fact we became two of the best-
known bootleggers in the area.”

G. E. Mortimore’s column “All Aboard”
appears in The Daily Colonist, Victoria,
and is syndicated to other papers across
Canada. Mr. Mortimore also writes
a weekly “profile” in the Sunday

“Islander” magazine of the Colonist.

United States police were not party
to the secret, so if the undercover men
had been caught, they would have had
some explaining to do. But they
avoided arrest, and in six months they
gathered information that led to the

MILLER’S CIGAR STORE

Chuck and Joe Giordano, Proprietors

Confectionery
Novelties

Magazines —

Smokers Sundries —

Across from the Prince Ruperi Hotel

701 2nd AVENUE WEST
PRINCE RUPERT, B.C.

seizure of $150,000 worth of silks and
the end of the racket.

A tight-lipped, whimsical smile
lights the assistant commissioner’s
face as he remembers the funny side
of past cases. “Cliff’ Harvison is a
lean, tall man, six foot four, aged 55,
with a deep rumbling voice, a calm
disposition and a steel-trap mind.

Nobody can recall seeing him lose
his temper, or show signs of worry.
He treats people kindly; never blusters
or talks down.

Important Jobs Seek Him

His cool head has made him the
choice for a number of important
jobs, some involving national security.
He and his long-time associate, Supt.
J. R. W. (“Pete”) Bordeleau, now

With Compliments

DOMINION MINERS AND
PROSPECTORS CLUB

PRINCE RUPERT B.C.

Page Three