The Czech Gold When Parliament reassembles next week, Sir John
Simon will be faced with pressing questions about the fate of the £6,000,000 of Czech gold held by the Bank of England for the Bank for International Settlements. Last week Sir John Simon promised that the Government would enquire whether there is any legal ground for resisting the transfer of the gold to the German Reichsbank. By his own account, there is no good reason for resisting the claim, which has been made by the administrators of the Czech National Bank ; in accordance with their constitutions, both the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements have no choice but to carry out the transfer. Yet in equity if not in law it is clear that the Reichsbank has no shadow of a claim to the gold of the Czechs ; and the public in this country will have difficulty in believing that international law is such that a bandit has a legal claim to the property of his victim. On this basis alone it appears that the British Government has sufficient grounds for bringing the question of the Czech gold before the International Court at the Hague.
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