ALEXANDRIA GOLD ROBBERY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10685, 4 February 1913, Page 2

ALEXANDRIA GOLD ROBBERY.

A BANK OF ENGLAND CONSIGNMENT. THEFT OF £IO,OOO. A remarkable robbery of £IO.OOO in gold coin, from a consignment of £200,000 despatched, from the Bank of England to thb ■ ofiic.es of the Credit Lyonnais in Alexandria is bewildering tho police not only in England and Egypt, but throughout the Continent. 'hie crime is one of the most daring of recent times, and it is believed that it was planned and carried out by a gang of international thieves. Information of the intended consignment of so large a sum of money leaked out to them by some unknown means, and the exceptional care with which they laid their plans is revealed by tlio fact, that, though twelve days have elapsed since the despatch of the money from England, it is not yet known at what point on tho route the money was stolen. The most unusual feature of the robbery is that when the cases containing the money wero opened at Alexandria the heavy eeals were apparently intuct. This shows that the despatch of the consignment must have come to tho knowledge of the thieves some considerable time ago, or tho work of making duplicate seals could not have been readily completed.

HOW THE GOLD WAS PACKED. The whole '£200,000 was first packed in strong bags, each containing £IOOO, and five bags were placed in each case. There were, therefore, forty cases. Eight seals were placed in each case, and the entire work was carefully superintended by representatives of both banks. The cases were finally handed over to the representative of the Credit Lyonnais, and he gave his receipt for the money to the Bank of England. It was on November 12 that the specie was desnatched from the Bank of England. The boxes were ranged in tho bullion yard at the bank, and their removal was supervised by three representatives' of the Credit Lyonnais. After the boxes had been screwed down, clamped with iron bands, and sealed, they were placed in a van belonging to Mr Charles Wells, carman and contractor, of Union Court, Broad Street. /

Following the usual practice, there was no armed guard with the van on its way to the docks, but the consignment was now. in the charge of two representatives of Messrs Keller, Wallis and Co., the agents to the Argo Steamship Company, of Bremen. The journey to the St Katharine Dock was uneventful, and the boxes were placed on board the steamship Schwalbe, and in the ordinary course the bill of lading was received and signed. On board the Schwalbe the specie was placed in the strong room on the main deck. To this strong room there are three locks—one on the door and two padlocks. The captain had one key and the chief officer the other two. This is the rule when specie is carried, so that neither the captain nor the chief officer could enter tne strong room''without the presence of his colleague. When the Schwalbe arrived off Bremen a, storm was raging, and the entry of the ship to the port was delayed, but the specie was taken on shore in a specially chartered tug, in order to catch tho train. JOURNEY- ACROSS EUROPE. On the quay tho bullion boxes were received by the postal authorities and the representatives of the Credit Lyonnais, and were placed in the luggage room of the southern bound train for Trieste. _ The guard of .the train on its long journey was changed four times. At Trieste the forty cases were placed on board the steamship Helouan, owned by. the Austrian Steam Navigation Company, for .Alexandria. Again the bullion was placed in the strong room of the ship. It was when tho Helouan put out tho bullion at Alexandria that the robbery was discovered. Tho gold as was well known, was so packed that the entire inside snace of each box was filled, so that there should have been no movement inside the boxes as they were handled. The officials, however, in handling the boxes, noticed that in tho case of two of them the contents seemed to bo loose. This was a suspicious circumstance, and the dock authorities sent for the representatives of Lloyd's underwritters. The seals were first examined. Apparently they wero all intact and genuine. The boxes were then weighed. The weight was correct, but the fact remained that two out of the forty boxes had contents which wero loose. It was then decided to open theso two boxes, and inside, instead of gold, the officers found lead. The inquiries which have been mado by Detective-Inspector Collison, of the city police, and ex-Superintendent Leach, of the metropolitan police, who is acting on behalf of the underwriters, lead to the belief that the substitution of the lead for the gold took place on train journey between Bremen and Trieste.