GREAT TREASURE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 154, 22 February 1932, Page 2

GREAT TREASURE

INDIA'S GOLD ACCUMULATED THROUGH SCORES.OF CENTURIES. WEALTH OF PRINCES. In the long, long ago, they trekked through Khyber Pass, long lines of" camels, heaped high with spices, silks, scents, fragrant woods, opium, drugs" and precious stones. It has been going on for centuries, this stream of gold into India's cofffers. The country itself does not know the extent of its own riches, says a writer in an oversegs journal. India, a prominent Government official has declared, could have paid in cash for the entire cost of the war — the cost to both Allies and enemies — and not have felt the loss. A year or so ago, a young ruler, who had just suceeded to his kingdom, was appalled at the sheer confusion and disorder of the gems, pearls, and gold that had descended to him. He called in a native jeweller and instructed him, with his assistants, to value the treasure in the vaults. After two days, the jeweller gave up the job. "Maharaj, it would take me a yeor to catalogue it. My remaining years wculd 'not be long enough in which 'to set a value on it," he declared. Which explains why India was rc- • 'cently able to send a shipment of 1 -£24,000,000 of gold to London, and also to pay, in cash, an instalment of £15.000,000 off a debt. Unloading her gold hoards, said the world. Rot! India was merely spending a little of her vest-pocket ready cash. For in a country where for hundreds of years gold has been received in exchange for goods, where idols have blood-red rubies for eyes, and where young princes, still in their tf-ens, wear pearl necklaces worth £500,000, a few score million are a bagatelle. In the last four hundred years, treasure imported into India for the direct payment of goods has totalled £550,030,000 in gold, and £4,565,000,000 in silver. To-day Eritain prys anuuall/, m balance her imports from India, £29,000,000 in gold and silver to India. Where does it go? Not to the Indian Government, but direct to merchants and firms. Thence the natural characteristic of the Hindu comes out and the gold is hoarded. It has been estimated rhat, in the last 39 years alone, £355,000,000 in gold has been lost to the wovld's supply. It goes into the undergrotmd, into temple vaults and princely cellars.