of gold, which had been brought there during the war from the cen- tral region of Russia. [n the month of August 1918, when the Bolsheviki hastily had to evacuate Kazan, they did not have the time to take along that gold, of which over 492,000 kilograms, valued at 633,600,000 rubles ($326,304,000) was seized there. The figure of 645,000 kilo- grams of gold, which has been given in a number of official and private reports, is inexact. The error is probably due to the fact that the weight of the alloy and of the wrapping was counted with that of the gold. In the statement of the Omsk Branch of the State Bank gold figures to an amount of 645,256,387 rubles ($332,307,038) namely, 501,233 kilograms of gold in coin and in bullion and 32,800 kilograms of gold and silver of various descriptions. From Kazan, at the end of the month of August 1918, the gold was shipped by steamships to Samara, where it was kept until the time when the members of the Constituent Assembly moved to Ufa; it was then shipped to the last named city. During their stay in Ufa, the members of the Constituent Assembly were conducting negotiations with the Siberian Government, which had been set up by that time as a coalition government. Each of the two parties had a real force to back it, and endeavored to utilize it in the course of the negotiations: the force of the members of the Constituent Assembly resided in the gold stock which they held, whild that of the Siberian Government was embodied in the newly formed volun- teer army. The first mentioned group was seriously hampered by the lack of good troops, as the remnants of the People’s Army* by that time were completely demoralized. On the other hand, the financial situation of the Siberian Government was a critical one, and the only way for it to acquire real financial strength was to get possession of the gold stock. Under the pressure of the Bolshevist advance, the People’s Government decided to transfer its seat from Ufa to Cheliabinsk, taking along the gold .stock, and there to con- tinue the negotiations with the Siberian Government. But then something happened which was not anticipated by the mem- bers of the Constituent Assembly. When the train carrying the representatives of the people and the gold arrived in Chelia- binsk, the members of the Government went to look for a place where they might store the gold in safety, and they selected for that purpose the grain elevators of the State Bank. Upon returning to the station, however, they no longer found there the trains loaded * That was the name borne by the Government of the Constituent Assembly and by its army.