CLAIM TO "RED" GOLD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16623, 16 April 1928, Page 7

CLAIM TO "RED" GOLD

INGOTS SENT TO PRANCE REPORTED SEIZURE AT SEA (Elec. Tel. Copyright—Unile<l Press Assn.) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.} LONDON, April 14. The story of the transhipment of £1,000,000 of gold in mid-Channel at midnight reads like an old-tune incident of smuggling and piracy. Tho Soviet Government shipped ingots valued at £1,000,C00 to America. A French bank claimed the money on tho ground that it is the samo gold it deposited in the Russian State Bank in 1915 to 1917. Tho French Government obtained an injunction in-the American courts preventing tho money being landed there. The gold was re-shipped to Bremen by the Norddeutscher steamer Dresden, which was due to call at Cherbourg, where it was expected the French authorities would seize the gold. The Russians chartered a steamer and awaited the Dresden six miles off Falmouth outside territorial waters. They wirelessed their plan of campaign to the Dresden and went alongside shortly after midnight. The money was trnnshipmed without a hitch, and with the utmost speed. The Russian steamer then steamed off to an unknown destination.

THE GOLD INTACT PIRACY STORY DISCREDITED (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) LONDON, April 14. The Sunday Express' Pans correspondent cabled Cherbourg that the ship is now going to Bremen with the gold intact. The captain laughed uproariously at the story-of the alleged transhipment of the Soviet gold in mid-Channel. He said: " The gold is part of my cargo, and I would not allow the French authorities or anyone ejse to remove it. I shall only relinquish the responsibility therefor when it is handed over to the consignee at Bremen."

INTERESTING HISTORY SEQUEL TO REVOLUTION NEW YORK, March 10. Twenty crimson casks containing £1,040,000 in Russian gold were involved* in a complicated legal mesh, with their ownership it issue. Suit was filed by the Dank of France in the Federal Court here lo recover the gold bars, ivhieh pro now held by the Equitable Irust Co and the Chase National Bank. It was tascd on the assertion that the metal was stolen from the State B,tuk of the Russian Empire 'after the Bolshevist revolution. The legal aspect was complicated by the fact that United States courts have ruled that the Soviet can neither sue nor be sued since it is not recognised by the United States as being iegallv an entity. The gold was sent here from Russia last mouth to facilitate handling of trade between America and Russia. When it was presented for assay, the Treasury Department refused to receive it unless the two New York banks would guarantee title to it.