halem, in the Cowichan district of
British Columbia.

The aerial vigil for smugglers is a
continuing operation.

Several times in the past decade
R.C.M.P. planes have spotted
tell-tale tracks in the snow and
put ground searchers on the trail
of gangs which periodically bring
bargain-priced cigarettes and elec-
trical appliances across the United
States border in Quebec and the
Maritimes.

Many a car has been seized simply
because it left tire marks on a little-
traveled country road.

Varied Cargoes

R.C.M.P. planes have doubled as
courtrooms, cells, hospital wards and
dormitories. Cargoes have ranged
from fuel to frozen fish and from
mental patients to police dogs.

The freight manifest on one trip
carried the cryptic notation: “one
unidentified corpse.”

SALMO MERCANTILE

CO. LTD.
GROCERIES
HARDWARE
GIFTS
SALMO B.C.

Salmo Service Station

E. J. AVERY
ICE CREAM — CONFECTIONERY

Bus Stop
Shell Products
Retail and Wholesale
SALMO B.C.

VANCE BROS. LIMITED

“Wholesale Produce”
Phone 1200

156 Wellington St. Trail, B.C.

P.O. Drawer 150

Telephone 127

HUBNER’S GARAGE

A. F. HUBNER, Proprietor
Expert Repairs to All Makes of Cars

Gasoline, Oils, Tubes and Accessories

ROSSLAND BRITISH COLUMBIA

ORWELL HOTEL

F. J. Bousquet, Proprietor
LICENSED PREMISES
FULLY MODERN
COMFORTABLE ROOMS
GOOD SERVICE

ROSSLAND, B.C.

TWENTY-SEVENTH EDITION

Duty-bound, dog and master about to take off with R.C.M.P. pilot.

There’s nothing dull about this
work. Every flight is an adventure.
Sergeant R. J. Harries set some sort
of a record in northern Saskatchewan
when he was asked to search for a
suspected suicide.

The search took 30 seconds. During
the take-off he discovered the man’s
body dangling from a tree on the
fringe of a pasture that was his land-
ing field.

These versatile policemen-pilots
may find themselves doing a lengthy
patrol of the Northwest Territories to
inoculate or destroy animals with
rabies, or perhaps seeking bank
bandits such as three now completing
10-year terms in a federal prison.

‘They'd taken $40,000 from a Sas-
katchewan bank and got clean away.
A police plane was summoned from
Regina. Before nightfall it had picked
up the trail and guided ground
searchers to their quarry.

The R.C.M.P.’s first interest in the
airplane as an extension of the law’s
long arm was fostered by the late
Commissioner Sir James MacBrien.
As a young general in the First World

BURNS LUMBER CO.

“EVERYTHING FOR THE BUILDER”

Wholesale Lumber & Builders’ Supplies
SALES AGENTS FOR

Canada Roof Products Ltd., ‘The Ace Tex
Line”

General Paint Corporation, Monamel &
Industrial Paints

MacMillan & Bloedel Sales Ltd., Sylvaply,
Plywood and Monodoors

Nelson British Columbia

War he frequently mapped tactics
from the air. In 1926, as chief of the
Canadian General Staff, he became an
R.C.A.F. recruit at Camp Borden and
passed a military pilot’s course.

As early as 1931, a bushplane
figured in one of the R.C.M.P.’s most
celebrated cases, that of Albert John-
son, the so-called Mad Trapper of Rat
River. (See full story on page 7 of
this issue.)

In 1932, the R.C.A.F. began
conducting air searches for rum
runners, with R.C.M.P. officers
as observers. Sightings were
radioed to fast patrol boats.

Sir James MacBrien used aircraft
extensively. He made his 1936 in-
spection by air and covered 11,000
miles. The following year the Air
Division, then called the Aviation

Visiting Members Cordially Welcome

CANADIAN LEGION

B.E.S.L. No. 51
J. BRINLEY, Secretary-Manager
W. H. BURNS, President

Nelson British Columbia

H. B. Horton, Mgr.

R. E. Horton, Pres.

W. W. Powell Company

LTD.

Manufacturers of

WHITE PINE MATCH BLOCKS
WHITE PINE LUMBER

NELSON B.C.

Page Thirty-seven

hii
I it