understanding with the Russian Government for the transfer of
gold, securities, and valuable objects to Russia, for safekeeping at
the Kremlin, in Mosow.
The same month there were deposited at the Kremlin the gold
reserve of the National Bank of Rumania, amounting to 314,584,457
gold francs, and two chests of jewels belonging to the Queen of
Rumania, of an estimated value of 7,000,000 francs. Somewhat
later, in 1917, an additional quantity of gold of a value of 574,524
francs, likewise coming from the National Bank of Rumania, and
securities belonging to the same Bank, representing a value of
1,600,000,000 francs, were also deposited in Moscow. Other de-
posits were effected at the same time by various institutions con-
trolled by the Rumanian Government, as well as by private concerns,
to a total value of about five billion francs.
All these Rumanian deposits were seized by the Soviet Gov-
ernment.
Ie PropuctioNn or GoLp IN
SIBERIA
Siberia in 1917, 1918 and 1919 produced 59,040 kilograms of
gold.
A large portion of this gold was apparently held at Irkutsk.
32,800 kilograms of gold were supposed to be in the vaults of the
State Bank there at the time of the Bolshevist coup d’Etat, in
January 1920. The greater part of that gold had been produced
at the Lena mines and in the district of the Bodaibo laboratory.
This gold had never been included in the balance sheets of
the State Bank, and it must have been a pleasant surprise for the
Bolsheviki to discover it. On the other hand, Ataman Semenoff
was able to get about 8,200 kilograms of the gold, part of which
he bought through special agents, and the rest seized on the
persons of travelers passing through Daouria station. If we add
to this the 2,738.8 kilograms of gold which the Bolsheviki had suc-
ceded in exporting from Omsk in 1918, when they were supplanted
by the Siberian Government, it will be found that at the beginning
of 1920, there remained about 41,000 kilograms of gold of the
production of the three preceding years. As to the remainder, of
which it has been impossible to ascertain the exact umount, it must
be either held by private persons or have been exported abroad.
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