“SPANISH GOLD” IN RUSSIA ACCOUNTING CALLED FOR AFTER 20 YEARS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28256, 18 April 1957, Page 12

“SPANISH GOLD” IN RUSSIA ACCOUNTING CALLED FOR AFTER 20 YEARS

[By

MAURICE LATEY,

in the United Kingdom Information Service]

Everyone has read in youth the kind of adventure story in which the dying hero entrusts his treasure —Spanish gold, perhaps—to a friend for safe keeping for his heir; and when the heir comes later to claim th 6 treasure it has vanished. Such a drama now seems to be unfolding on™ larger scale between Madrid and Moscow.

One of the last acts of the last Spanish Republican Prime Minister, Dr. Juan Negrin, was to offer his help to General Franco in recovering Spanish gold deposited for safe keeping in Moscow in 1937. There was 500 tons of it, worth some £200,000,000 sterling at the conventional fate—a windfall which would greatly help Spain in her present economic difficulties. Dr. Negrin died before he could carry out his offer, but his family have apparently now made the necessary documents —including the Soviet receipt for the gold—available to the Spanish Government. On April 5 the Soviet Foreign Minister, anticipating the Spanish claim, made a public answer in advance. Briefly, the answer is that there is no gold. The Soviet story—as told in “Pravda”—is that Dr. Negrin did indeed deposit gold reserves of the Bank of Spain with the Soviet State Bank in February, 1937. But he did so not simply for safe keeping but also to cover expenses abroad of the Spanish Republican Government; and according to “Pravda” these expenses were so high that all the gold was spent in 18 months—that is, by August, 1938, “Pravda” claims that the Soviet has a letter from Dr. Negrin confirming this. It goes on to say that the Soviet Union gave credits to the Spanish Government to the extent of 85,000,000 dollars, of which 35,000,000 were repaid. “Consequently,” says “Pravda,” “the Spanish Government remained in debt to the extent of 50,000,000 dollars.” An Ally Exploited?

That is a very strange story. Certainly during these 18 months the Soviet Union was providing some help with grain shipments and the like for the hard-pressed Spanish Republic; and if we are to judge from subsequent Soviet dealing with satellite countries, Moscow would certainly have driven a hard bargain. But £2oom sterling needs a lot of accounting for, and “Pravda” makes no attempt to account for it. Clearly

it was not Dr. Negrin’s impression that the money had been spent, unless he was playing a rather unlikely practical joke on the Caudillo; and if Moscow wants to prove its case it will have to produce the letter of acquittance from Dr. Negrin which it claims to possess with documentary evidence of any instructions from the Spanish Republican Government to spend the reserves. If this evidence is not forthcoming the world will naturally assume that the Soviet Government explbited its earliest ally in much the same way as it has since exploited the satellite States. After all, the Soviet Union has monopolised the uranium mines of Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Rumania and taken all their production at prices which are a strict secret, preventing these countries doing profitable business on world markets. Massive Plundering The Russians have only just admitted that for 10 years they have been grossly underpaying Poland for coal she has been compelled to deliver to them. Under the guise of reparations, Moscow has taken some 2500 m dollars’ worth of dismantled plant from China, Poland, Hungary and Rumania, not to mention 24,000 m dollars’ worth from Eastern Germany. Beside this massive plundering the case of the missing Spanish gold may seem a minor incident, although an important matter for Spain. The gold in question is perhaps the equivalent of a year’s production from the Soviet Union’s own mines. It is a Leninist principle that the Soviet Union use its gold reserve as sparingly as possible in the struggle of competitive coexistence with the capitalist world. But last year, particularly during November and December, the Soviet Government had to draw on its gold reserves to an unprecedented extent. So the Spanish demand for 500 tons of gold would seem to Moscow highly inopportune. In adventure stories the defaulting trustee usually comes to a bad end and the heir gets back the Spanish gold. But General Franco will perhaps be lucky if he does not find himself confronted with a counter-claim for 50m dollars.