150-YEAR-OLD LOAN

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 139, 9 December 1929, Page 19

150-YEAR-OLD LOAN

U.S. DEBT TO MARSEILLES

The archivist of the Marseilles Chamber of Commerce has just discovered, according to the "Journal of Paris," that the United States owes merchants of Marseilles £45,000,, the debt dating back to 1773. M. Fournier, tho archivist, says there is an abundance of documentary evidence proving the claim * i hJ°' day m&y be estimated at least at.£66,000. The circumstances in which this debt is said to have been incurred are as follow:—

A number of Marseilles vessels were m American ports in 1773, at the time naval war was raging between Groat Britain and Prance, and the; French captains, fearing confiscation of the money they had received for their cargoes by the British' colonial authorities, deposited this money, with American friends who would 'not betray tl'emio^ho British. These friends conducted banks in- Charleston:, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and Boston. ■ •

When the independence of tho colonies was declared the money, with the consent of the Marseilles ■ merchants was transferred as.a:loan to the State banks to be drawn upon by-the Treasury of "the United States-of Columbia." •■..■-..

After the independence of the States was recognised by the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the Marseilles merchants attempted to recover their loan, but their request was ignored.■" The -correspondence in the archives:of: the-Marseilles Chamber of Commerce is said to show that in 1793 the interest was paid, but since then, not a' cent of either principal or interest.

The descendants of the Marseilles merchants interested have formed an organisation and hired legal experts to devise ways .and means by which the money may be recovered.