| AMERICAN servicemen smuggled vast quantities of brandy and champagne into Britain on military aircraft during the Second World War, according to documents just released by the National Archives. British officers became increasingly frustrated at the preferential treatment given to US personnel, who were allowed to pass unchallenged through customs checkpoints in Britain. Their own soldiers, in contrast, were routinely searched when they returned from fighting to military bases across Britain. Apparently fearing that they would offend their American allies, the Government did not object until almost a thousand bottles of champagne were discovered at Chelmsford, in Essex, where they had been brought from France by a US Air Transport unit. The Brandy Shippers Association first raised the matter with the Ministry of Food in 1944 but cautious customs officials replied that it appeared to be ?considered impolitic to attempt to interfere with United States personnel entering and leaving this country?. An English colonel complained to Customs & Excise about the inconsistencies between the treatment of British and US soldiers. ?This caused considerable ill-feeling,? senior members of the RAF told the Government. The papers also showed the concern within the RAF?s special investigations branch over smuggling and currency dealing by air force personnel. However the War Office remained unconvinced that smuggling by US or British soldiers was serious enough to merit intervention. So customs officials concluded that they should hold off any attempt to enforce a crackdown on wartime smuggling. It was only when the stash of champagne was found that customs officials were told that the matter of smuggling was now being raised with US military officers at the highest levels. However, formal action was still not taken. The papers from the National Archives show that US servicemen were not the only people to be evading customs controls. Officials were also persuaded to turn a blind eye to the Government?s importation of 78 silver and 146 gold watches, all of them untraceable, for the secret services. They were told that the watches were given to British spies for use abroad and noted that they were a ?lubricant? during the war. The charitable customs officials waived the licence to import them despite suggestions that they had not been properly cleared or the gold and silver checked, as was normally required. In a letter, officials noted: ?It is understood that the circumstances in which these watches were imported are very ?hush hush?.? The customs? chief inspector concluded that any further import of watches for British spies was unlikely but in future the goods would be ?detained? by customs officers to assess their value. The vigilance and sensitivity of censors during the Second World War was also revealed in the records. Material banned from import into Britain included the International Working Men?s Association Bulletin and all Jehovah?s Witness publications, including The Watchtower. This proved particularly controversial and prompted several MPs to complain. Concluding that the public generally disapproved of ?anything which savours of religious interference?, the ban was lifted towards the end of the war. | 
