EAGER FOR GOLD

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 82, 7 April 1933, Page 9

EAGER FOR GOLD

A CRAZE IN JAPAN

EXPEDITIONS FINANCED

The sudden craze for gold that has lately come over Japan is resulting m the promotion of some of the wildest schemes ever devised in the long history of gold quests. i Tales of sudden riches made by those that have successfully speculated an the fall of the yen, and the fact that gold now has'a buying power of five times its former value, lias produced a national get-rich-quick state of mind. Money is not being sought in the usual way of business, but by going straight after the metal itself, writes Loraine Kuck in the "San Francisco Chronicle " The search for gold not only covers every nook and corner of the country, but goes to the bottom of the sea as well. Promotion companies to prospect for gold are being formed almost daily, and their stock is eagerly bought by thousands of people in every walk oi life, all anxious to gamblo a few yen on the chanco of getting hundreds in return. ~ . . Japan, has been a gold producing country throughout its history, with the metal used lavishly in the arts and at times in spectacular quantities on certain buildings. Among tho latter is the famous Gold Pavilion in Kyoto, which was formerly covered entirely with gold leaf. Centuries ago tales of such riches reached Europe, being carried, among others, by Marco Polo, who had heard them at the Chinese court. . His accounts tell of buildipgs in ''Cipango," as Japan was then called, that were roofed with slabs of gold, as .lead was used to roof buildings in Europe. Undoubtedly these stories stimulated the desire for trade with the Indies. FARMERS AS WELL. But the gold mines of Japan have long been exhausted, or at least it has been so believed, but now with the spectacular rise in the price of gold, a feverish hope has been stimulated that deposits may be discovered that were overlooked during the centuries. Hundreds of volunteer prospectors, from farmers to expert mining men, are tak- ' ing part in tho search and from time to time rumours are heard of tho discovery of rich veins. These rumours come from almost every part of the Empire, not only tho main island, but Hokkaido in the north, Korea, Formosa, and Manchuria. New development companies investigate these rumours, and many prospects are bought at high prices. Most of these discoveries are "fakes," "salted" with rich ore, but serious hopes are entertained that in Korea there may actually be found mines worth developing. Governor-General K. Ugaki, of Korea, is responsible for the statement that the peninsula can produce as muchgold as Japan requires. One of the largest of the new promotion companies has been organised by Bukichi Miki, a noted politician. This company is paying explorers to •look for deposits, and so great is the hope that they will be found that a recent call for a stock subscription was answered by hundreds of eager buyers. But most romantic of the gold searching schemes arc those that turn to the bottom of the sea to find bullion. . During its history many ships have been lost not far from the long coast of the island empire, and old records show that a number of these had known amounts of treasure on board.