2RHPZ
12-17-2005, 01:38 PM
THE JAPANESE AND THE RUSSIAN GOLD
Chances of tracing the treasures of the Russian Empire look slim
Vasily Golovnin, ITAR-TASS correspondent in Tokyo, exclusively for Izvestia
In the summer of 1920, an old locomotive pulled several railroad cars right to the station located on the Russian-Chinese border in Manchuria, in northeastern part of China, occupied by the Japanese army at the time. The train was guarded by two dozen resentful soldiers commanded by a stocky man whose tunic was wet with sweat. A pair of protective goggles was attached to his dusty service cap.
The man changed his clothes before going to the commandant’s office. Gold shone dimly on the shoulder straps of his general’s jacket. He said to the Japanese officers: “We hereby request the Allies to grant us permission to stay temporarily at the territory occupied by the troops of the Japanese Empire. My name is General Petrov, I’m a commander of the rear services under the Supreme Governor of Russia recognized by your government.
Remnants of the defeated Russian army of Admiral Kolchak were flocking around that Manchuria railroad station at the time. The majority of the servicemen used to belong to the officer regiments of General Kappel, the most trained and disciplined units of the White army. The Japanese put forth strict conditions: only those Russians who agreed to transfer their arms and state treasures to the Japanese authorities could be guaranteed against the Bolshevik persecution. The last part of the requirements referred directly to General Petrov and the goods loaded on his train. The railroad cars contained part of Russia’s gold reserves. The general tried to wrangle over the deal with Japanese but to no avail. He ended up getting a somewhat plain receipt issued by the Japanese. It said that the boxed bars of gold were temporarily transferred to the Allies for safety reasons.
The gold disappeared without a trace afterwards. Along with a few other larger consignments of Russian gold that happened to come into possession of our Far East neighbors at the beginning of the 20th century. It’s hard to say how long the Russians have been talking about “chances and ways to get back what we lost”. The issue came to light again this year. In April it’s reported to have been discussed at the first meeting of the Russian-Japanese Council of wise men where 7 “ prominent representatives of the public” from each country got together in an attempt to break the stalemate.
“We don’t have any documents whatsoever”
After the meeting behind the closed doors, Georgy Boos, a vice speaker of the Russian Duma who’s one of the domestic “wise men” of the council, indicated that Russia could urge Japan to return the treasures. Tokyo interpreted the statement as a sign of light blackmail i.e. they may claim back their gold if we keep raising the issue of the South Kuriles. The Japanese government’s opinion on the subject is cut and dried: Japan keeps no Russian items of value that need to be returned to Russia, how an official with Japan’s Foreign Ministry put it while commenting the situation around the lost gold at my request.
According to him, in 1991 and 1995 Moscow requested Tokyo to clear up the problem.
A report on the results of the inquiry conducted by the Japanese foreign ministry was sent to Moscow in October of 1996. Neither Russian, nor Japanese authorities have made it public so far. My requests for a copy of the document came back from the Japanese foreign ministry with an invariably polite “Your request in under consideration.”
Issay Nomura, Japanese Ambassador to Russia, speaking at a press conference in Moscow, outlined the basics of the report for the first time in public. According to him, the archives of a Japanese bank called Yokogama Sekin (a precursor of today’s Tokyo-Mistubishi bank, one of Japan’s largest) were studied during the research. The Russian gold reportedly went to the above bank. Other documents relating to the issue were obtained from the archives of now defunct Ministry of Army, and Parliament. The foreign ministry ascertained that 55 boxes of gold in bars and coins were delivered from Russia to Japan from 1916 through 1920. First the czarist government then the White army paid in gold for the Japanese military supplies.
The Ambassador said that part of those funds was spent on arms and equipment while the remainder was returned to anti-Bolshevik forces by means of gold or cash at the exchange rate effective those days. He also informed that experts also looked into the state bonds placed by the Russian government in Japan during WWI to pay for military supplies. As at today’s exchange rate, the bonds are worth about 70 billion yens or more than $650 million. Some of the above funds were also spent as required while part of them was seized by the Japan government due to the expiry of loan maturity and the disappearance of the czarist government.
The Ambassador pointed out that the Japanese government arrived at the following conclusion in 1996: “All the items of value were either returned or entered in the books and therefore Japan is under no obligation to return anything.” Moscow doesn’t appear to have anything to object this point of view. So far the Russian foreign ministry have made no attempts to kick off the official talks on the whereabouts of the missing gold. “No, we don’t have any documents whatsoever,” told me a Russian diplomat, a wry smile on his face. “A few sheets of paper with no legal effect plus some confusing stories of the elderly –that’s all we’ve got.”
I’ve heard some of those stories myself. Sergei Pavlovich Petrov, a 69-year-old businessman from California, arrived in Moscow in August 1991 to attend the Congress of compatriots. It’s he who spilled the beans for first time about his father handing over part of Russia’s gold reserves to the Japanese for safekeeping. His story stirred up quite a fuss back then, numerous publications with incredible twists and turns followed. I had to pay a visit to California. My Japanese partner Kodzi Obaysi, the owner of the news agency Kokusai Tokyo Press, paid for my airfare. He got really excited about the lost treasure story. He located in San Francisco the son of the very man who arrived on that train in the Manchuria station in the summer of 1920.
“No way, it’s not that I said! I said nothing about the gold hidden in the boxes covered with hay or that those boxes read ‘dynamite’ on the side,” Sergei Petrov sounded extremely amazed as he looked through the cutouts from the Moscow press with details of his story. “I never said that it would be easy to get the treasures back. That gold played such a twist of fate on every member of our family.”
... more @ inauka.ru (http://www.inauka.ru/english/article47536.html)
Chances of tracing the treasures of the Russian Empire look slim
Vasily Golovnin, ITAR-TASS correspondent in Tokyo, exclusively for Izvestia
In the summer of 1920, an old locomotive pulled several railroad cars right to the station located on the Russian-Chinese border in Manchuria, in northeastern part of China, occupied by the Japanese army at the time. The train was guarded by two dozen resentful soldiers commanded by a stocky man whose tunic was wet with sweat. A pair of protective goggles was attached to his dusty service cap.
The man changed his clothes before going to the commandant’s office. Gold shone dimly on the shoulder straps of his general’s jacket. He said to the Japanese officers: “We hereby request the Allies to grant us permission to stay temporarily at the territory occupied by the troops of the Japanese Empire. My name is General Petrov, I’m a commander of the rear services under the Supreme Governor of Russia recognized by your government.
Remnants of the defeated Russian army of Admiral Kolchak were flocking around that Manchuria railroad station at the time. The majority of the servicemen used to belong to the officer regiments of General Kappel, the most trained and disciplined units of the White army. The Japanese put forth strict conditions: only those Russians who agreed to transfer their arms and state treasures to the Japanese authorities could be guaranteed against the Bolshevik persecution. The last part of the requirements referred directly to General Petrov and the goods loaded on his train. The railroad cars contained part of Russia’s gold reserves. The general tried to wrangle over the deal with Japanese but to no avail. He ended up getting a somewhat plain receipt issued by the Japanese. It said that the boxed bars of gold were temporarily transferred to the Allies for safety reasons.
The gold disappeared without a trace afterwards. Along with a few other larger consignments of Russian gold that happened to come into possession of our Far East neighbors at the beginning of the 20th century. It’s hard to say how long the Russians have been talking about “chances and ways to get back what we lost”. The issue came to light again this year. In April it’s reported to have been discussed at the first meeting of the Russian-Japanese Council of wise men where 7 “ prominent representatives of the public” from each country got together in an attempt to break the stalemate.
“We don’t have any documents whatsoever”
After the meeting behind the closed doors, Georgy Boos, a vice speaker of the Russian Duma who’s one of the domestic “wise men” of the council, indicated that Russia could urge Japan to return the treasures. Tokyo interpreted the statement as a sign of light blackmail i.e. they may claim back their gold if we keep raising the issue of the South Kuriles. The Japanese government’s opinion on the subject is cut and dried: Japan keeps no Russian items of value that need to be returned to Russia, how an official with Japan’s Foreign Ministry put it while commenting the situation around the lost gold at my request.
According to him, in 1991 and 1995 Moscow requested Tokyo to clear up the problem.
A report on the results of the inquiry conducted by the Japanese foreign ministry was sent to Moscow in October of 1996. Neither Russian, nor Japanese authorities have made it public so far. My requests for a copy of the document came back from the Japanese foreign ministry with an invariably polite “Your request in under consideration.”
Issay Nomura, Japanese Ambassador to Russia, speaking at a press conference in Moscow, outlined the basics of the report for the first time in public. According to him, the archives of a Japanese bank called Yokogama Sekin (a precursor of today’s Tokyo-Mistubishi bank, one of Japan’s largest) were studied during the research. The Russian gold reportedly went to the above bank. Other documents relating to the issue were obtained from the archives of now defunct Ministry of Army, and Parliament. The foreign ministry ascertained that 55 boxes of gold in bars and coins were delivered from Russia to Japan from 1916 through 1920. First the czarist government then the White army paid in gold for the Japanese military supplies.
The Ambassador said that part of those funds was spent on arms and equipment while the remainder was returned to anti-Bolshevik forces by means of gold or cash at the exchange rate effective those days. He also informed that experts also looked into the state bonds placed by the Russian government in Japan during WWI to pay for military supplies. As at today’s exchange rate, the bonds are worth about 70 billion yens or more than $650 million. Some of the above funds were also spent as required while part of them was seized by the Japan government due to the expiry of loan maturity and the disappearance of the czarist government.
The Ambassador pointed out that the Japanese government arrived at the following conclusion in 1996: “All the items of value were either returned or entered in the books and therefore Japan is under no obligation to return anything.” Moscow doesn’t appear to have anything to object this point of view. So far the Russian foreign ministry have made no attempts to kick off the official talks on the whereabouts of the missing gold. “No, we don’t have any documents whatsoever,” told me a Russian diplomat, a wry smile on his face. “A few sheets of paper with no legal effect plus some confusing stories of the elderly –that’s all we’ve got.”
I’ve heard some of those stories myself. Sergei Pavlovich Petrov, a 69-year-old businessman from California, arrived in Moscow in August 1991 to attend the Congress of compatriots. It’s he who spilled the beans for first time about his father handing over part of Russia’s gold reserves to the Japanese for safekeeping. His story stirred up quite a fuss back then, numerous publications with incredible twists and turns followed. I had to pay a visit to California. My Japanese partner Kodzi Obaysi, the owner of the news agency Kokusai Tokyo Press, paid for my airfare. He got really excited about the lost treasure story. He located in San Francisco the son of the very man who arrived on that train in the Manchuria station in the summer of 1920.
“No way, it’s not that I said! I said nothing about the gold hidden in the boxes covered with hay or that those boxes read ‘dynamite’ on the side,” Sergei Petrov sounded extremely amazed as he looked through the cutouts from the Moscow press with details of his story. “I never said that it would be easy to get the treasures back. That gold played such a twist of fate on every member of our family.”
... more @ inauka.ru (http://www.inauka.ru/english/article47536.html)