LOOT OF EUROPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 225, 21 September 1940, Page 7

LOOT OF EUROPE.

WHAT NAZIS MISSED. HOW FRENCH GOLD ESCAPED. (Bv JOSEPH ALSOP AXD ROBERT KLNTXER.) WASHINGTON, August 18. One of the really remarkable untold -turies of the fall of France is that of ; the French gold. To tell the point ■before the story, the German general ! -tafT entering Paris *till hoped that the I gold bullion remaining in the Ranque !<le France would be a major item of loot, vastly strengthening German ability to jbwy in the world market. They found, | however, that virtually all of the gold had escaped them.

Some had been liaitilv shipped to London in t-he desperate days between the battle of Flanders and the breakthrough on the Sommc. Some, which | had been taken to Brest, had been sent lon to Dakar, w'ere it --till is, oui of ifiernian rea-h. And I-ugc quantity —■ j.'i.Vi tons of gold—had been hurriedly taken to the United States. > This wa«- arranged by the Ambassador to Franc Mr. William Christian I Bullitt. in the time ju-t before the 1" re jieh * .(j\<- rll un-ii t abandoned Pari--I In- wa« then at ( a-a blaii' .i. where h.id Ichii r-.iit for -a fekoopin;;. Bul--1;t r -iijL"—ted to the French officials jtiiat tliey might piciW lo depo-it the 'treasure in this country. They jdeaded that no transportation wa» available. Makiii" rapid arrangements with Wash- ! ingtonj JJullitt had the Vineennes, two dest rovers. and another American naval v.*s-ei Vent to Casablanca to pick up the Treadire. The Viiiconue- brought over ■Jii< dollars worth of it. and immi dollars more came in the >: :K-r .-hip.-. Jiv] thiir- this gold i- now • irt oi tiie hu™e pool of European <=. Frere-h, Belgian, Dutch, Danish and Norwegian, which the. Treasury has impounded and frozen to keep them oui 'of German tandfc. —(V-AV.aj