OPERATION BANKNOTE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 894, 21 September 1956, Page 23

OPERATION BANKNOTE

[N the peaceful Paris district of St. Cyr the headquarters of the International Police Commission are to be found. This is the organisation commonly known by its code name of Interpol. The Commission is sponsored and staffed by expert detectives from most of the countries of Western Europe. Its authority covers crime in all its international phasesand Interpol’s cases include espionage, forgery, counterfeiting, murder. and deal-

ing with political escapees and refugees. The Commission first began its work in the early 1930s, but suspended operations during the war. It was revived by a meeting of National Police Chiefs in 1946. One of the most interesting of Interpol’s cases, and one they are still closemouthed about, was the cleaning-up of a large-scale counterfeit operation during and after the war in Europe. It is

known that the Albanian spy Eliaza Banza- the infamous "Cicero"-was paid over a quarter of a million pounds in these forged notes. It was this affair which inspired the plot of The Golden Cobweb, the new ZB serial which begins at 9.0 p.m. on Monday, October 1. The affair of the Golden Cobweb, or "Operation Banknote," as it became known to Interpol, began when a certain Major Von Kauffner was appointed by the Nazi High Command to create a counterfeiting organisation capable of turning out millions of English banknotes in an attempt to corrupt Britain’s economy throughout the neutral countries of Europe. The attempt did not. quite succeed because of the speed of The Allied Forces’ advance across Europe. However, Major Von \Kauffner with his blonde, his fast sports car and the _ specially-con-structed and extremely ee ee ne

valuable printing plates, disappeared. Eventually, while hiding out in Southern Germany, the Major died and his wife, the Countess (Lyndall Barbour) brought the plates to Paris, where she met a man called Simonoff (Guy Doleman) who owed allegiance to no one but himself. On the trail of these plates and of the men who plan to use them, we find Commander Brennan (Walter Sullivan), formerly of Naval Intelligence and Scotland Yard’s Special Branch, now with Interpol. The Americans are also investigating the Cobweb’s activities, because they have heard that one Mike Havana (Owen Ainley), an expert counterfeiter, is being imported by the Cobweb’s.men so that they can expand their enterprise into the dollar market. Another man involved is the man from whom listeners will hear most-Jeffrey Allison ‘(Lloyd Berrell), who simply was under orders to get a story-and got more than he bargained for.