RUSSIAN GOLD

Southland Times, Issue 20463, 16 April 1928, Page 7

RUSSIAN GOLD

TRANSHIPMENT AT SEA AMAZING MIDNIGHT EXPLOIT FRENCH BANK DISPUTES OWNERSHIP (United Press Assn—-By Telegraph—Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) London, April 14. The story of the transhipment of £1,000,000 worth of gold in mid-channel at midnight reads like an old time incident of smuggling and piracy. The Soviet Government shipped ingots valued at £1,040,000 to America. A French bank claimed the money on the ground that it was the same gold as it had deposited in the Russian State Bank during 1915-17. The French Government obtained an injunction in American courts preventing the money being landed there. The gold was reflhipped to Bremen by the Norddeutcher steamer Dresden which is 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 a plan of their campaign to the Dresden, went alongside shortly after midnight, and the money was transhipped without a hitch and with the utmost speed. The Russian steamer then steamed off to an unknown destination.—Australian Press Association. MERELY A HOAX? CAPTAIN’S RIDICULOUS STORY. (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) London, April 14. The Sunday Express’s Paris correspondent says that the Dresden cabled Cherbourg—“Ship now going to Bremen. Gold intact.” The captain laughed uproariously at the story of the alleged transhipment of Soviet gold in mid-channel. He said: “The gold is part of my cargo and I would not allow the French authorities or anyone else to remove it. I shall only relinquish responsibility therefore when it is handed over to the consignee at Bremen.”—Australian Press Association.