POLISH GOLD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 131, 30 November 1939, Page 14

POLISH GOLD

HOW IT WAS SAVED

■■# • ■■. •' •■■■.■.■■■■■■': " AND ITS DESTINED PURPOSE

IBy Air Mail. , From "The PostV

London Representative.)

LONDON, October 20. After a hazardous 6000-mile journey by lorry, rail, and boat, 70. tons of Polish gold arrived safely in Paris by way of Rumania;. Turkey, Syria, and the Mediterranean, says the Paris cor-i-espondent of the "Daily Herald." The gold was in the Warsaw vaults of; the Bank of Poland-when the evacuation of the capital was ordered at the end of the war's, first week. J The energy and determination of Colonel Matuszewski, a former Finance Minister, saved the £20,000,000 worth of treasure. He commandeered at the utmost speed a'fleet of lorrieslorries used for carrying all sorts of goods, to disguise their contents. The caravan jolted and bumped its way to the Rumanian frontier. On the very • verge of safety it was unsuccessfully bombed by German aeroplanes.

In Rumania the precious load was transferred to a specially chartered train and taken to Constanza, on the Black Sea, where a Turkish boat was waiting. ■ It was a race against time, for trie Germans knew already that the gold had left Poland. And a few hours after the boat sailed the Rumanian Government received a warning from Berlin that the gold must under no circumstances be allowed to leave Rumanian territory.

The little boat cruised for over a week in the Eastern Mediterranean. Then it was arranged with the French Government that the gold should be unloaded in Syria and then transported to France by the French Navy. It was of the utmost importance for all the Allies that the bullion should not come into the possession of the gold-hungry Nazis. It is now absolutely safe. The new Polish Government has made it clear that not an ounce of it will be spent for Government needs. It will form the reserve for the restored Polish currency in reconstituted Poland,.