VAULTS BEAT BOMBS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20486, 21 February 1941, Page 7

VAULTS BEAT BOMBS

VALUABLES FOUND SAFE LONDON DEPOSITORY LONDON, Jan. 9. Millions of pounds’ worth of property, including priceless jewels, furs, paintings, currency, legal documents — even rare postage stamps—have been salvaged from the vaults of a famous London depository bombed in the early days of the German air offensive. To recover some of it 1500 tons of debris had to be hand-picked, shovel by shovel, for small articles of value. Although the building was destroyed, the massive steel vaults, in corridors between 30ft and GOft. below the ground, remained almost untouched. Some lb,ooo people had left their valuables in the vaults. Every day for weeks depositors have been coming to the wrecked building, and in nearly all cases they have been assured that their treasures are safe. “Our greatest trouble,” the manager of the firm stated, “has been through water from the fire hoses which flooded some of the vaults and damaged documents. But most are still fit to be produced in court. What we feared most was that the deed boxes containing the documents would be crushed, but most of the boxes are intact.

“Tire site is being so thoroughly cleared that we will soon be able to put up temporary offices over the vaults. People who have found their valuables safe have decided to leave them in the vaults, and we are continuing to let them to new depositors.”