Under the procedure in France, which also was used in Norway and Denmark, it is understood, the German authorities deposited a block of German Government bonds with the French banks and obtained francs in exchange. With these funds the German military authorities bought heavily of food and goods. The French merchants received the custom mary francs instead of German currency and made large sales. In this connection it is said that the city of Lyons was virtually stripped of foodstuffs by the German buyers. In this way Germany obtained huge supplies with a minimum of disturbance to customary methods of doing business. In the meanwhile, the central bani of(the invaded nations are left with German Government bonds of doubtful value.
Gold Holdings "Frozen"
The United States Treasury, under order of President Roosevelt, has "frozen" all gold holdings, as el] as accounts of German-invaded nations, so that no transfer of ownership may be made except through special licences. The Netherlands Government now functioning in London, has not endeavored to liquidate, the gold holdings of its central bank now held in this country, and it is understood that the French Government has made no effort to seek a release, The monetary gold stock of the United States is now more than $20,700,000,000 and is rising weekly at the rate of about $100,000.000. In this connection, many theories are being advanced in various quarters to the effect that the nation's gold hoard should be used now to reduce government debt with the consequent re-introduction of free circulation of the metal. Theoretically, of course, this gold does not belong to the Treasury.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.