Orange Cases Labelled With Bank Notes

Wanganui Chronicle, 20 December 1950, Page 5

Orange Cases Labelled With Bank Notes

LONDON, Dec 19 (Recd 11.21 pm). Senor Santiagomorant Giner Gandia, owner of orange groves in Valencia, Spain, has caused the Foreign Office and the metropolitan police a great deal of worry, because he has been sticking on every case o£ oranges he sent to Britain a perfect reproduction of a Bank of England pound note. Treasury officials who examined the note on many of 200 cases which arrived at the East India docks from Spain, said it was one of the best copies they had seen and so near perfect that they suggested Gandia’s printer in Valen* cia was probably unwittingly using a block made by the Germans during the war to depreciate the value of British currency. Customs officers have removed the labels from more than 100 cases and have told the ship’s captain that his cargo must not be distributed without authority. Some cases already had been unloaded and the police are trying to locate them to prevent anyone trying to pass off the labels as genuine pound notes. One man who did try was arrested and charged with offering a “forged instrument.” The ‘‘Daily Herald” says the Foreign Office, through diplomatic channels, is applying to the Spanish authorities for surrender of the block under the international monetary agreement. (Special N.Z.P.A. Press Correspondent).