GERMANY'S TOWER OF GOLD

Evening Star, Issue 15140, 24 March 1913, Page 6

GERMANY'S TOWER OF GOLD

Even the modern burglar with his oxvacetylene gas would find some difficulty in getting at ths Franco-German War indemnity, stored up in tho Julius Tower of bpandau. Besides the £6,000,000 of tho indemnity paid by France, there is also a vast quantity of specie which would come m particularly useful if put into circulation during the present shortage of gold >n tho .commercial world. But high military considerations make it imperative that the gold should lie there untouched. Of course, every precaution has been taken to guard this mass of treasure. It is kept m tho citadel of the tower and on two stories of the citadel. As many as 1,200 large wooden chests are'employed to contain this' great mass of gold. 'Each chest holds £5,000 in gold, so that altogether the chests conceal £6,0C0,000. They are piled up one upon another, 30 deep." 'The gold is not simply piled up in heaps, but 'S stocked in bags. Each chest holds 10 of these bags. The chests themselves are so arranged thai a burglary seems impossible. Eveiy screw in the'wood is sealed up, so that a breakage would appear out of the question. It would, moreover, be immediately noticed. The weight, moreover., -is known, as well as the"weight, of each chest, down to a gramme. An examination of the monstrous piles of gold pieces by counting them can naturally be only very sddom carried out. Nevertheless, the guardians of the treasure make every year sundry examinations, in the. course of which an assay of the metal is taken. On siuh occasions the chests are looked over to make sure that the seals are absolutely untampered with, the weight of a row is taken, and some chests are even opened. From these the sacks of gold are taken, and the pieces of gold are counted.