“Meanwhile the plot thickens and the $700 daily losses multiply. 
The Bank of France just has brought suit in the Federal courts of 
New York to recover the gold bars, on the theory that they are 
the identical gold sent from Paris to Petrograd in 1917 at the 
instance of the czar but to be returned to the owner on demand. 
“Which raises further technicalities. In the first place, this 
gold is not gold, since there is an embargo against Russian gold and 
legally no Russian gold can exist in this country. 
“So far as Uncle Sam is concerned, the casks contain only 
‘material’ In the second place, the United States has never recog- 
nized Soviet Russia, so Russia does not exist. And, being non- 
existent, Russia cannot sue or be sued in this country, albeit she 
occupies one-sixth the land surface of the globe. 
“So there you are. And yet foreigners call us ‘the most practical 
people in the world” It may be a good thing for Soviet Russia, 
just now, that she does not exist, legally, in this country; other- 
wise the French might grab the twenty casks of gold. 
“But regardless of who owns the yellow treasure, its enforced 
idleness is now netting somebody an economic loss of about $30 
an hour, $700 a day, $22,000 a month or approximately $275,000 
1 year. 
“That much money would pay for a lot of goods. Making 
these goods would keep a lot of people busy. And they do say 
we have amongst us considerable unemployment.” 
Taunton, Mass., Gazette, March 13, 1928 
SPURNING $5,000,000 
“Verily, some of the ways of high finances and high government 
are hard to fathom. 
“The Soviet Government recently sent $5,000,000 in gold bullion 
to New York, intending to use it to buy goods in the American 
market. But government officials have decided that this money may 
have come from the reserves of the czar’s old Imperial Bank ; hence 
it may be subject to other claims. So they have prohibited its use 
nn this countrv. 
“It is good gold, but the Soviet cannot buy here so much as 
a package of chewing gum with it. They can, however, send it to 
another country and buy $35,000,000 worth of goods there. The 
ultimate losers, it would seem, will be American manufacturers.” 
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