RUSSIA’S GOLD

Evening Star, Issue 19890, 12 June 1928, Page 1

RUSSIA’S GOLD

HAD FIGHTS FOR IT BATTLES IN SIBERIA. Tho suit filed in tho Federal Court in New York by the Bank of France to recover as its own property tho £1,040,000 in Soviet gold, now in the vaults oi the Equitable Trust Company and the Chase National Bank, has brought into the foreground a romantic story of the Tsarist treasure which has one incident as thrilling as any movie drama. At the outbreak of tho World War the Russian Imperial Treasury contained 1,600,000,000 roubles in gold. In the autumn of 1915, as a result of negotiations of the zlllied Finance Ministers in London, the Russian Government transmitted, chiefly by way of Japan, 650,000,000 roubles of this gold to London to assist tho British in holding the allied currencies stable. The Russian Finance Minister, M, Bark, expressly stipulated that this sum should not be regarded as security for Russian orders, but as Russia’s contribution to the stabilisation fund. How much of it found its way to Paris is not known, but part of it undoubtedly served to maintain the parity of the franc.

NO TRACE OF THE GOLD FRANCS. It is noteworthy that there was no question at tho negotiations regarding the 52,000,000 francs in gold mentioned in the Bank of France’s claim against tho Soviet gold alleged to have been deEosited in St. Petersburg when the war egan, and it is said that no trace of this sum has been discovered. General Kolchak’s Government transferred a further 5,000,000 roubles in gold to Stockholm, so that at tho time of the Bolshevist revolution a total of 945,000,000 roubles should have remained in the Treasury. But of this General Kolchak managed to secure 645,000,000, according to Professor Novitsky, who states that “this sum Kolchak hoped to keep untouched for the disposal of tho Constituent zVssembly,” which, after defeating the Bolsheviki, Kolchak was pledged to summon.

The remaining 300,000,000 roubles were taken by the Bolshevik!. They paid Germany 120,000,000 roubles in gold, according to the terms of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which, later, by article 259 of tho Versailles Treaty, were transferred to France and England “ for safe keeping.”

BATTLE FOR KOLCHAK’S GOLD. There remained on Rusisan soil the 180,000,000 roubles left in the Treasury and tho 645,000,000 in the bands of General Kolchak. General Kolchak scut abroad 194,000,000 in payment for war materials, security against currency, etc. z\nother 42,000,000 of his hoard went to “support the army” of the celebrated Ataman Somcnoff, never again beard of. General Kolchak’s remaining 409,000,000 were “ taken care of ” by tho Czecho-Slovak Legion when they let the ill-fated Kolchak fall into the hands of the Bolshcviki, who promptly executed him. There is a thrilling talc of a raid by a semi-bandit force claiming to represent one of Siberia’s dozen Governments of tbc time upon the Czechguarded gold train. 'Hie guards were slaughtered, and looters blasted open the steel-plated ears with grenades.

BULLETS FELL GOLD-MAD RAIDERS.

In furious haste, for they knew that both Czecli reinforcements and Red troops were burning space to catch them, they ripped open the sacks of coins and cases of bullion and grabbed crazily each for himself, filling pockets, blouses, breeches, and boots. Their bullets Iregan to whistle as the rescuers approached.

As the told is told, some of the raiders were so frenzied with gold fever that they remained lighting one another to clutch fresh handfuls and never heeded the danger until cold steel ended their madness forever.

The rest lied wildly, and tbc.ro ensued a scene of dreadful poetic justice, for a bullet travels faster than a man whose boots are full of gold. Czechs and Reds ran them down easily, so the tale goes, shouting with laughter as the demented wretches flung bullion from their shirts and gold coins from their pockets. One man sat in a ditch taking off a boot. He was wrestling with the other boot when a Red soldier reached him. Instead of shooting, the Red charged with the bayonet, and met a long cavalry boot loaded with ten pounds of gold coin on his skull. The raider seized the Red’s rifle, fired twice at the nearest pursuers, poured two handfuls of gold, no more this time, into his tunic pockets, and, barefooted, made his escape. Anyway, the Soviet Government recovered 400,000,000 roubles of the Kolchak treasury, bringing the total in the Treasury up to 580,000,000. In the years 1919 to 1921 much of this was exported to pay for Soviet purchases abroad. Professor Novitsky gives the figure of 451,000,000 roubles sent out through Eslhonia alone and 74,000,000 over other frontiers.