Big Gamble In W Shipmen

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27796, 22 October 1955, Page 9

Big Gamble In W Shipmen

(Rec. 8 p.m.) MONTREAL, October 20.

One of the best kept secrets of World War If, how Britain transported more than 7,000,000,000 dollars in gold and securities to Canada, was disclosed today in a story in the current issue of “Reader’s Digest.”

The article, written by a Pulitizer Prize-winning foreign correspondent, Leland Stowe, told how the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, met secretly with his Cabinet in June, 1940, and decided on the momentous gamble. As the Germans advanced, and the fall of France threatened Great Britain with invasion, it meant that “if a German invasion should succeed, the British would carry on the war from Canada,” the article said. The transfer of the treasure was thus part of a last-ditch survival plan. “A far-sighted move at the war’s outset made the whole gamble possible. All British citizens in the United

Kingdom had been required tc ter with the Treasury all theithem swells the securities they owned.” Gray). <6) The Churchill Government 4nd in the centre mandeered these assets —the fii

in history that a nation had sc. investments of private citizt themselves w hen national defence without the \ . , of the owners. I ribbon. (8)

The first shipment left Scotli cornered up a June 24. 1940, aboard the 1

cruiser Emerald, which sailed ini v nut asidp for submarine-infested waters of y P

North Atlantic, the article coni. So bad was the weather thr" sulclda * tenEmerald’s escorts had to turn > Seven days later the cruiser c' —• into Halifax harbour where a ase all these. (8) train with a dozen baggages protest once * * x- >ondon matchExtreme precautionary me?

were taken while the 500,000,00q ce bv pushing lars cargo was transferred. ? f a ? <8) The securities were taken to<g.) (6) treal and the bullion to O\ No, dismiss Special vaults were built in the terranean basenient of Montreal’.finish with. (6) Life Insurance building. The gol (Solution, o