GREEK CURRENCY CHAOS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 131, 4 June 1923, Page 5

GREEK CURRENCY CHAOS.

FALL OF THE POUND. MANY BANKS RUINED. RICH MEN LOSE THEIR ALL. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 12.R0 p.m.* ATHENS, June 3. The rate of exchange is now 110 drachmas to the pound elprliiiß. This, decline has caused the ruin of many | banks, which incurred enormous losses, as they had converted nearly nil their funds into foreign currencies. The i Government enrne to the rescue by issuing 300,000,000 drachmas in note?, which only afforded temporary relief. ' i Angry and threatening crowds Tiesieged several banks, some of which remained open all day Sunday paying out what, they could, having received loans of 250.000,000 drachmas from the National Bank, whose position is quite j sound, this bank not having converted its funds. j Ten of the richest bankers became penniless, and many financial kings lost their all in wild speculations. Several , have been arrested.—(A. and N.Z.) i Among them are Afendulis Pandoe,! associate director of the Bank of I Commerce, who borrowed six million drachmae from it and lost every drachma \ in speculation. | An industrialpanic also arose, mime- j rous employers suddenly realising that \ they were paying their workmen salaries which had risen to lie small fortunes.] Tim caused a crisis in the tobacco trade, | which does most of its business with I England. Groek importers of English | merchandise, vrho had been paying in | drachmas, found the drachma improved; so greatly in value that they were faced! with bills of four times as much as the j merchandise was worth. They refused to pay, and reshipped the enrgoes to England.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) A message received laet week stated j that the entire economic life of Greece had been upset by the fall of sterling I exchange from 400 drachmas to 250 to ' the pound. Enormous gambling opera- j tions by a few speculators caused flue- '■ tuations, which induced almost everyone in Greece to try a new form of gambling done without cash on the "bull" and "bear" principle. The "bears" ultimately I took'control, and a general panic ensued, j Enormous sums -were lost. It was feared that the Government would be unable to collect taxes imposed on the | basis of 400 drachmas to the pound, j Bankers agreed that the economic, value ] of the pound should bo about 300 I drachmas. Foreign residents now find Greece one of the most expensive instead of the cheapest countries in which to live. The par exchange value of the j Greek drachma is 25 to the pound. In ] 1922 the actual exchange varied from. 95 to 222 to the pound. I